|
 he
big-budget
Hong Kong
actioner "Dragon Squad" (which was
supposedly "produced" by Steven Seagal)
is a big, loud, and dumb movie made for a
globalized world. The narrative makes no logical
sense, with the type of incredible leaps in plot
development that could only exist in a film
written to be an action movie first, with
dispensable characters plugged in and around the
action set pieces later on to pander to various
audiences. The film's list of characters was
created with an eye toward international
distribution, with both the good guys and bad guys
originating from Hong Kong,
China, America, and
England. It's all very "global" of "Dragon
Squad", but alas it's too bad the film is
just so, well, stupid.
"Dragon Squad"
features pop star Vanness Wu (also in Lee's "Star
Runner") as a young foreign agent who,
along with other agents from other countries, are
sent to
Hong Kong
to deliver important evidence needed to convict a
murderous criminal. Joining Vanness is
Hong Kong
cop Shawn Yue ("Initial
D"), Mainland Chinese sniper Cheung (Yu
Xia), a British SAS agent with raggedy hair, and
undercover
Hong Kong
cop Eva Huang ("Kung
Fu Hustle"). Although the film's brochure
claims the agents are from Interpol, this is never
made clear in the movie, which isn't a surprise
because, well, not a whole lot is ever made clear
in the movie. In fact, not a whole lot makes sense
in the movie, but we'll get to that later.
Unfortunately for our tyke
agents, during transportation of said criminal and
evidence, the criminal part gets lost when a
murderous gang of killers led by Ko (Jun-ho Heo,
"Volcano
High"), with able assist from Michael
Biehn as a guy looking for payback, steps in with
a hail of bullets. It's a good thing, then, that
our young agents are the dogged types, because
they quickly form a team (don't they have posts to
get back to?) and begin operating against orders
from local cop Simon Yam ("Explosive
City"). Our freelance operators get able
assist from retiring cop/chauffeur Kong Long (a
cigar-chomping Sammo Hung, who looks like he was
driving back and forth between the set of
"Dragon Squad" and "Sha Po
Lang", judging by the hair coloring and
wardrobe). As expected, the present case has
everything to do with the past, a whole lot of
bullet casings are discharged, and a lot of stuff
that the script can't possibly explain happens.
In an interview he did for a
screenwriting book, "Lethal Weapon"
scribe Shane Black relates how he spent many
sleepless nights trying to explain how his
characters got from point A to point B so that
there wouldn't be any narrative gaps in his
script. I bring this up to say this: I get the
feeling the phrase "narrative gaps"
never even occurred to the screenwriters of
"Dragon Squad", because the film is
overwhelmingly idiotic, featuring gaping plot
holes and character motivations that makes not a
lick of sense. Why didn't these foreign agents go
home after their job was over? Don't they have
bosses demanding that they return? So, er, they
can just hang around
Hong Kong
and do their own thing at will? Apparently so.
Make no mistake, "Dragon
Squad" is all about the action, something
director Daniel Lee manages with skill, even if he
does tend to bring unnecessary attention to the
camera's zoom lens. Lee also makes an odd choice
by constantly flashing back to some indeterminate
time in the individual character's lives when
they're plying their trade. For example, because
Maggie Q. is a sniper, we constantly get
flashbacks to the same sequence showing her, well,
handling her sniper rifle. The same for the rest
of the cast. It's all a little gratuitous,
actually, and makes you wonder if Lee has
attention deficit disorder and needs to constantly
remind himself what these people's singular
personalities/backgrounds are, or if he thinks we have ADD and can't keep up with the film's 20 or so characters.
Which isn't to say the script
is completely lacking, because it surprises on
some occasions, such as its insistence on giving
the two main bad guys real pathos rather than just
make them cardboard villains. Sammo Hung's Long
also gets a backstory, involving a daughter who
doesn't want anything to do with him and a past
connection with Heo that involves a bloody
gunbattle. Curiously, the young agents are clean
slates from the moment we meet them. Some attempt
is made to give them backgrounds, but they're
half-hearted and oftentimes feel forced. Not that
anyone will mistake "Dragon Squad" for a
character-driven film, mind you. Nevertheless,
it's somewhat disturbing how little interest the
script has in its own main characters.
There are some inspired
moments sprinkled throughout "Dragon
Squad", including a scene featured in the
trailer that briefly shows a unit of Hong Kong
SWAT cops gathered on a rooftop preparing their
weapons. Another great moment is a lengthy and
completely chaotic gunfight inside an alleyway as
a storm of confetti paper billows about. The scene
features two groups battling it out in the
alleyway below, while on the rooftops snipers Song
(Maggie Q.) and Cheung battle from behind scopes.
Of course for every great action scene there are
pointless logic questions, such as: During that
cemetery shootout between Song and Cheung, when
exactly did Song get the time to rig up an
elaborate ambush? She'd probably need at least an
hour, not the 3 seconds she actually had onscreen.
But perhaps I'm over thinking
"Dragon Squad". It's clearly not a movie
whose makers stayed up nights trying to make even
semi plausible. As a purely action film, it
delivers on the bangs and style to warrant a
slight recommendation, even if Daniel Lee's use of
drums in the soundtrack begins to get a tad
tedious toward the end. And did the film's final
20 minutes really have to devolve into a series of
one-on-one fights between the good guys and bad
guys? In any case, if big and dumb action movies
are your thing, then "Dragon Squad" is
the way to go. Here's some advice, though: instead
of just checking your brain at the door, remove
it; you'll thank me later. |
