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Kong actor Ekin Cheng (Second
Time Around) is prolific, but unfortunately it's the kind of
prolific that goes for quantity over quality. I can scarcely sit
down to watch a Hong Kong film without seeing the man's name
attached to it in one form or another. Most recently Cheng has been
appearing in cameos, as he did in
Young and Dangerous 6 and now in Andrew Lau's Avenging Fist,
a film in which Cheng shows up for about 4 minutes of screen time,
but gets a prime spot in the marquees anyway. Can you say "false
advertisement", kids?
Avenging Fist
stars a troupe of handsome 20-something girls and boys, led by
Lee-Hom Wang who plays Nova, who along with his sister Belle (Kristy
Yang) are the children of two ex-cops named Wing (Cecilia Yip) and
Thunder (Biao Yuen). Along with their buddy Jazz (Kar Lok Chin) and
a bartender/virtual combat champ name Iron Surfer (Stephen Fung),
Nova and Belle lives in a future world that is perpetually dark and
high-tech to the nth degree. Trouble arises when a maniacal
Nazi-wannabe name Combat 21 (Roy Cheung) appears to wreak havoc on
the city. Combat's appearance draws cop Dark (Sammo Hung) into the
fray. (And no, I am not making these character names up.) Besides
suffering through a series of fat jokes, Dark must convince
happy-go-lucky Nova that he's destined to fight Combat 21, rescue
his father who has been brainwashed by Combat 21 to do his bidding,
and save the universe. How's that for pressure on your 20th
birthday?
Avenging Fist is essentially a
futuristic, sci-fi version of Tsui Hark's
Legend of Zu. Both Hong Kong films do not rely heavily on CGI,
bluescreen work, and computer special effects -- they are built
on them. The problem is that whereas Zu worked because it
could fall back on its fantasy elements for its plot (such as it
was) and effects-laden action, Avenging Fist is supposed to
be sci-fi, and thus many of its extravagant CGI elements can't be
reasonably passed off as advancements in technology. Mind you, I can
swallow as much techno-babble as the next "Star Trek" geek, but
Avenging Fist doesn't even bother to try to trick me with techno
nonsense. It is what it is and you can either accept it or not.
The acting corp in Avenging Fist
consists of young and fresh faces. The young men, led by Wang and
Fung are appropriately young, handsome, and "cool" looking. The same
is true for the women; Yang and Gigi Leung are young, pretty, and
will definitely get boys' hearts thumping. Obviously movies like
Avenging Fist doesn't need its actors to know any martial arts,
and almost all of the action scenes are heavily doused -- and any
shortcomings on the actor's part covered up -- with elaborate
effects and creative camerawork. Director Andrew Lau throws as many
tricks at us as possible, everything from varied film speeds to
bluescreen to CGI to stop motion. If you can think of a camera
trick, Lau has used it in Avenging Fist.
The film's martial arts action (and I use the
term loosely) is choreographed by long-time Jet Li contributor Corey
Yuen (Kiss
of the Dragon). Yuen's trademark fisticuffs can be spotted in
sporadic spurts, mostly in scenes where the actors rely on wireworks
instead of CGI effects. Unfortunately Yuen's influences are not
readily apparent in much of the movie, and as a result the actors
look more like characters from a video game than actual live people
doing stunts.
If there is only one reason to watch
Avenging Fist it is for the appearance of Sammo Hung, who plays
Dark, the overweight cop whose weight issue is the source of the
film's humor. Dark is played by Ekin Cheng in flashbacks, and
supposedly the thin Cheng turned into the overweight Hung in 20
years as a side effect of using a martial arts device called a Power
Glove. (Don't ask, it's all in the film.) Besides offering the movie
a good sense of humor, it's hilarious to watch Sammo Hung blame his
weight problem on the Power Glove with a straight face. And
depending on your point of view, it could also be seen as a little
mean that everyone in the film constantly points out how fat Dark
is. (What, there's no such thing as sensitivity in the future?)
The cityscape and skylines of Avenging Fist
are heavily influenced by other notable sci-fi films such as
Besson's
The Fifth Element or even George Lucas' recent
Star Wars Episode 1. Every now and then Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner even makes an appearance. The film also borrows
heavily from Lucas' Star Wars in theme and story, in that the
Luke Skywalker-like Nova has to rescue his Jedi warrior-like father,
who has been brainwashed into serving the bidding of the
Emperor-like Combat 21. Heck, the brainwashed Thunder even wears a
metallic mask! (Well, half of a mask, anyway.)
That isn't to say Avenging Fist is
without merit. Sammo Hung is very good in the role and offers the
movie's best moments. The special effects are very well done, and
much of the film looks very good. Unfortunately the fights leave a
lot to be desired, and the movie has a constant aura of mass
overload in that some effects seem unnecessary, and are done for the
sake of having effects. There is nary a scene in the whole movie
that hasn't been touched by CGI , and this left me to wonder if the
film was made for CGI-crazed people with A.D.D.
If anything, Avenging Fist reminds me of
a very talented kid with a lot of creativity, but unfortunately not
much in the way of storytelling ability.
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