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johnmanson
Reviews
Fung wan II (2009)
A big disappointment
First of all, let me say that I am a fan of the comic book series and really enjoyed the first Storm Riders movie. I can only say that this movie is an embarrassment. If I put myself in the shoes of someone who has never seen or heard of the comic book, I would be completely lost as to what was going on. It is an understatement to say that the storyline is underdeveloped and that there is little character development. I also did not feel that the special effects were up to the standard for the year 2009. If you are a bit brain-dead and not looking to think at all, this movie might be right for you because there is little point in trying to follow any kind of plot and you could just sit there and stare at lots of pretty colours, but even so, I would think there are better things you can watch. I was constantly looking at my watch hoping the pain would end and the $10 cheap tuesday ticket price i paid to watch this could have been better spent too. The female characters in the movie were of no importance, and Nicholas Tse's character was quite pointless too - maybe he will be back in a yet another horrible sequel which will go for special effects over an engaging plot.
In summary, possibly one of the worst movies of all time, because its hard enjoy the special effects and to care for the characters and their battles when you have no reason sympathize with any of them due to the fact that there is absolutely no storyline.
Shi mian mai fu (2004)
good movie, but the world already has its CTHD.
Slight Spoiler ahead-
A thoroughly enjoyable movie which is more CTHD than Hero. Perhaps Zhang Yimou has decided to be more conservative with this outing since the relative failure of Hero to cause any fuss in the movie industry. Let it be known that this movie is first and foremost a movie about a love triangle rather than a martial arts film and while there are many fight scenes in the film that are beautiful to watch, ultimately the movie is about the feelings a woman has for two different men. For this reason, I liken the film more to CTHD than Hero because Hero was based on a true story. I have to say that I did miss the fact that Jet Li and Donnie Yen are two of the best martial artists out there on film today when watching this film. The special effects are cool but this movie, along with CTHD just go to show that you can make anyone able to do martial arts and look cool on camera. The thing I was most amazed with was how the House of Flying Daggers could send Mei out to kill Jin. A society that was so protective and meticulous in their battle plans and preparations would not do such a stupid thing just in case....it seemed to be a small flaw in the story. Casting was good and Zhang Ziyi did a good job this time - no gross overacting here from her. It was apparent to me when i read about this film that it was targeting several markets in order to achieve popularity, Andy Lau being from Hong Kong, Takeshi Kaneshiro being Taiwanese/Japanese and Zhang Ziyi being from China. Finally, the musical score at the end of the movie was an English opera piece which I thought to be incongruent with the rest of the film, but people are walking out of the theatre then anyway so it is no big deal. Those are my thoughts on the film anyway.
X2 (2003)
I can see X5 or X6 in the pipeline
An enjoyable sequel, this movie kicks right off where the last one ended and seems to be developing itself into a franchise of films much like Star Wars. It will probably live under the shadow of The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions this year but I think the best is yet to come from the X-Men. The casting for the film is excellent and provided they can continue to coordinate the schedules of all the actors it would be great to see them in action in further sequels. This film stands out among the Matrix-wannabes and I admire it for not resembling the Matrix in any sense other than the black suits. So if you want to see an intelligent sci-fi flick and you're sick of hearing about the Matrix, give this one a look, it might just be better than the Matrix.