THE STORM WARRIORS (2009)

 (Directed by the Pang Brothers)

 "Um, guys, where did the plot go?"- Signed by MartialHorror.


Plot: Two warriors must team up to repel a Japanese Warlord who seeks to invade China.

Review:

“The Storm Warriors” is a sequel to “The Storm Riders”, although for some reason the Pang Brothers have decided to pull the “it's not a direct sequel” bullshit that I hate. “The Storm Riders” was a big deal when it came out, being the most expensive Hong Kong movie ever  made at the time. It's been years since I've seen it, but my memories are happy ones. It had cool and creative visual effects and plenty of interesting characters who all seemed to have their own story (love it when that happens). I'm not familiar with the comic it is based upon, so don't know what fans felt, but I thought it was a good wuxia fantasy. The idea of a sequel is intriguing, but 10 years later? I don't know...Director Andrew Lau was replaced by the Pang Brothers, which excited many of the fans. The Pangs are pretty respectable and popular, but I dunno...I tend to be indifferent to the movies they're lauded for (like the original “Bangkok Dangerous (1998)”), but I tend to like the movies they're slammed for (like “Bangkok Dangerous (2008)”). In the end, the movie happened and was released to unhappy reviews. But I saw it and wow... This movie has some faults that I can only describe as 'new'. But I also didn't mind it. As fantasy fluff, I think it's okay.

 

 Even if it is Hong Kong's equivalent of “The Last Airbender”...

 

China finds itself invaded by the ruthless Lord Godless (Simon Yam)- Seriously? That's his name? Why don't you just call him Heartless?- and his son Heartless (Nicholas Tse) – oh...- who desire a dragon bone in order to rule China. They capture the Emperor and many of China's best warriors, but now have to contend with Cloud (Aaron Kwok) and Wind (Ekin Cheng), who have the tendency to kick ass when they're together. But a rift is formed between them when Wind is chosen for a special kind of training that can defeat Lord Godless. Cloud ultimately finds his own path, but Wind begins to give into the evil (a side effect of the style). Can they defeat their foe and overcome their personal demons? Or will they be consumed by the green screen and CGI effects? Only time will tell.

Throughout the bulk of the film, I was impressed with the films visual style. It's crazy and bizarre stuff, sometimes feeling like a live action video game, other times like a live action anime, other times even managing to be like a live action manga. It's all clearly green screen and CGI work, but it throws itself into it so boldly that nothing comes across as fake, probably because nothing comes across as real either. I love it when films are full of vibrant colors and wild visuals, especially when the visuals themselves are rather creative. In a sense, this is what I wanted from "Immortals (2011)", which was a bit too restrained when it came to eye popping imagery. Like “Storm Riders”, this sequel has all sorts of cool techniques that the characters use which are dazzling to watch. My favorite sequence is when Nameless (Kenny Ho) attacks Lord Godless with this advanced sword technique. It gave me chills! What's cool too is that the film never even manages to slow down. Literally, we are pretty much thrown into an action sequence that doesn't ever really stop for more than two seconds. It's all action, mostly fantasy action, but action all the same. When the end credits began, I was wondering why everyone disliked the movie.

 

Then I did a double take and paused. I merely had one question: “Um, what the fuck did I just see?”


After pondering quite some time, I came to the conclusion that “The Storm Warriors” forgot to have a 1st act. Within the three act structure, the first act is designed to introduce us to the characters, the world and the situation. It's there so that we know what's going on in the second and third act, in many ways making it the most important segment of the movie. The first film did a pretty good job at establishing it's fantasy atmosphere, the good and bad traits about the characters and you knew the general story. Here, because the film lacks that act, none of the characters are fleshed out. We know nothing about anyone, meaning we don't care what happens to them. The funny thing is despite the Pangs insistence that this is not a direct sequel, the only empathy I felt for our heroes came from my memories of their characters in the first one. In the first film, Cloud is proud and hot headed, but we never see this in the second movie. Therefore, when he's snubbed by the potential teacher, it only has weight if you've seen the first movie. This is even more apparent for Wind. In the first film, he was the true hero (Cloud was an anti-hero) and watching him transform into something evil is almost heartbreaking if YOU REMEMBER HIM AS A HERO. In this film, he has like 5 lines before that arc begins (and he rarely speaks after that). One character dies late in the movie, and I was like: “No! We hardly knew you! Seriously, we hardly knew you...WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?". But the movie makes it out to be the most tragic thing ever. Yet do you know what Aaron Kwok said in an interview? He described Cloud as “a very complex character, and people will see a more developed version of him here. He is more mature this time, and more 'human' too. You see him as a real human character, not just a comic character”. Um, when?

 

But this ties in to my anger at the Pangs for brushing aside the original. I HATE it when filmmakers of remakes, reboots, re-imaginings (usually that come from a source material like a book or a comic) try to pretend the previous adaptation didn't exist and claim that their work is a true adaptation. Generally, this only means that I have to laugh at the new film, wondering if the source material just sucked. I hate it when mediocre movies like “Conan the Barbarian (2011)” do it, because mediocre movies aren't mediocre for no reason. I probably hate it even more when good movies pull it off. While everyone was lauding the “True Grit” remake, all I kept thinking was despite the Coen's claiming otherwise, it was nearly a shot-for-shot remake of the John Wayne film except it has a new ending. Seriously, for all their talk, they had to use identical set designs? What the hell!? But “The Storm Warriors” somehow managed to anger me even more. At least those films established their own characters. This film doesn't establish Cloud and Wind at all, instead relying on our knowledge of the first film. To me, that's an insult to the much superior “Storm Riders”.

Not only does the film fail to flesh out its characters, it also fails to flesh out the plot. Or was there a plot? Despite listing something fairly simple in the plot section of this review, that actually turns out to be more of a sub plot. Every time the film throws the plot a dragon bone (haha, get it? I made a fail!), it will explain everything with a line or two if we're lucky. Okay, so the bad guy needs to get into the tomb? Okay. He needs to get a dragon bone? Okay, but what does it do? He never seems to become stronger with it, but everyone says that it is holding China together. Why is the bone having an effect on Wind's transformation? What was with all the hype that Wind and Cloud together are godly when they don't even team up throughout the battle? They actually do sort of team up once, but it was more of a battle royale. The questions never stop, but honestly I only asked them in retrospect. The visuals ultimately are there to distract from the films flimsy story, but at least they did that successfully. Because there is no time spent on getting us to understand what was going on and who these people were, nothing makes sense for people who aren't familiar with the comics. I compared it to “The Last Airbender”, but both films make the same mistake in different areas. They abridged a story that's far too vast to be abridged. But whereas “The Last Airbender” did ultimately create a coherent plot, it was rendered soulless by stripping away the charm from the characters. The main point of the show (the humor) was gone. With “The Storm Warriors”, it actually does have a soul, but it can only be found in the visuals. But because it's abridged, the plot became incoherent and muddled. I had no clue what was going on.

 

Wrapping things up, the Pangs do make a few more mistakes with the action scenes, such as making scenes with minor characters over-dramatic (when Heartless and the General are fighting over the bone. Seriously, WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?). They also have the tendency to freeze frame shots for no reason. But I thought the film looked great and it's visuals are stunningly ambitious and creative. Much like “Red Cliff” and “Avatar”, I felt that the visuals had substance to them. This puts “The Storm Warriors” above something like that new “The Three Musketeers” movie, which looks nice, but the visuals aren't consistently unique to carry the movie. But in the process, the film forgot to have an opening act, characterizations, a coherent plot and the movie even ends without a real resolution. One reviewer described the film as a special effects reel, and they aren't wrong. But I liked the special effects, so I couldn't hate the movie even if it kind of sucks.

Violence: People spit out blood a lot. PG-13 worthy.

Nudity: None.

Overall: “The Storm Warriors” is worth seeing if you liked the first film or the comics its based on, but it's probably best to keep your expectations low.

2/4 Stars