In February of this year, I reviewed for you and for the site a good Yakut S-action movie "Heroes - Battle for the Cup" - despite its local nature (filmed by our own people for our own people), the lack of translation and the amateurish level of filming, the film seemed to me a good attempt for adequate staging of fights, music and colorful characters. In the discussions, I learned about the existence of a second part, in which the budget and sponsorship were increased support + the same heroes, but I honestly warned that I would judge much more harshly.
With great difficulty I managed to find this film on torrents and just recently I saw it. What can we say? I am disappointed. Why? In order.
The main problem of the film is a very weak script that spoils an excellent idea - the film is overly drawn out and the tournament itself begins long after the second half of the film - before that there will be a limp fight with Ong Bak, distracted by the Biker's dialogue with the Muay Thai's father. In the first part, I noted that the extra-tournament comedy part was too long (showdowns with the family) - here it is extremely exaggerated and enlarged, moreover, the adult characters also fight among themselves for some reason and it looks completely inappropriate, pushing the tournament into the background.
Let's move on - Tournament. The rules of the tournament are incomprehensible to me, as is the introduction to it - if in the first part there was a completely realistic meeting between the heroes, and not forgetting to remind that those fighting are ordinary people, then here the main villain is a labor demon from Hell, about whom they know in the village ("This Scorpio has shown up again!"), besides, the losers can fight again and again (losers Bolo and Kitana again fight with other characters), and there is simply no progression system for the competition, reminiscent of Mortal Kombat 2 - Jackie Chan immediately fights Scorpio in a single fight .
Characters and combat - everything is complicated here too. Firstly, the choreography in general has dropped, the flurry has increased (the final battle suffered greatly), and the special effects in a number of battles are eye-popping (the fight with Naruto). Secondly, there is stupidity - Wolverine does not use his claws in the fight with Bolo! More precisely, at first he uses them, but they turn out to be ineffective and he switches to hand-to-hand combat; a number of fights are interrupted mid-sentence and there is a constant distraction by the adventures of stupid Brian, who takes up a lot of extra time that could be spent on fights.
The characters are played somewhat worse than the first part:
- Bruce Lee again did not squeal, he threw Chucky at the beginning of the fight, but he had a good convincing fight with the ninja archer and this fight is the highlight of the film. Alas, there is no more action with him.
- Jackie Chan has an average fight with Scorpio and a weak fight with Ong Bak - the signature features of the original are there, but to an extremely insignificant extent. Otherwise, Jackie Chan sluggishly trains and chats with the girl and the Biker, which is a minus.
- Ong Bak is good, as in the last part, and has a convincing and tough fight with Reptile, who did not spit poison, but for some reason was good with a spear. Alas, there is little else about Ong-Bak.
- Bolo is also not bad, but he has partially lost the charm of the final boss and the fighting style of the original - now he is a simple fighter. He is followed by several good (for a film of this level) fights with Wolverine and Jet Li. Wolverine looked good, he even tried to portray the tone, but the stupid move of removing his claws caused surprise. Well done Jet Li, the guy tried his best.
- Kitana - expected more. There was an attempt to decorate the film with a women's fight, but the darkness of the chosen scenery and crappy editing ruined the fight. Her fight with the bikers is complete crap, consisting of flickering against the backdrop of fire.
- Jin Kazama - I didn’t see the signature moves of the original, Gina is a plus only for the costume and that’s all. The fight with Naruto is interrupted at the most interesting point and spoiled by filming and editing. Naruto's own special effects are eye-watering for the increased budget.
- Cool Van Damme and Sub-Zero from the first part did not make it to the tournament and this is a minus.
- Brian Fury... This is a mess, comrades. No, the actor is funny, he coped with the comical role, and the costume is good - but to kill the storyline with this character, constantly transferring the plot to him from the intense duel of another hero? Pointless and stupid - for most of the film we see this idiot running through the forest? The most moronic plot twist is connected with him - having received the lyuli, he runs.... Complain to mom and dad, who then run into the forest to help the heroes.
- Same issue with Biker Jamahah. This guy is a hell of a director of the film (as I understand it) and he took too much screen time for himself, like Brian, taking time away from other more interesting guys, and if in the first part his misadventures also took up extra time, then at least they were appropriate.
- Scorpio is a good suit, but a pointless action game without a harpoon, which he didn’t use at all in battle.
Finally, the final scene finished off, turning the film into a farce - the seemingly defeated Scorpio hits the hero in the back with a harpoon and he seems to die, and in the background all the heroes rush at him in a moronic, incomprehensible fight, filmed like a drug addict. Then HULK appears! And the film immediately ends with credits, leaving the author of the review in very deep bewilderment.
Did the film have any serious positives? Of course - this is excellent music and a wonderful romantic song in the scene of Jackie with her lover, as well as the flavor of the Yakut village and life - this has not been lost since the first part and decorated the first half of the film. There were a lot of good jokes based on this topic, which even resonated with me and gave me faith that the film could turn out good.
Hack and predictor Aviator: the increased budget and big names in the sponsors did not make the film better - a mediocre script, unimproved acting, the loss of a number of features of the first part and not only unresolved, but also increased disadvantages of the previous film ruined everything. There was catastrophically little action for the extended runtime of an hour and a half - and only fights, coupled with excellent music, were at least some positive aspect.
Still, even despite this, the Yakuts made a good attempt, and if the film had been in the hands of a good screenwriter and director, everything would have gone differently. It would be much better to remove Brian completely from the film (or make him a hero who suddenly realized his power), make Scorpio an evil spirit from the legends of Yakutia, taking the form of a game character, and increase the number of battles. I wish the Yakuts not to lose heart, but to learn from their mistakes and produce a dozen more worthy films.
Good luck to everyone and bye!
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Tags: HEROES 2: Scorpion Tournament, HEROES: Battle for the Cup
Tags: HEROES 2: Scorpion Tournament, HEROES: Battle for the Cup
I would like to watch a video of the fights.
Andrey,
2-3 battles there are very good, the rest are worse.
An insightful review of our film! Everything is written down to the point!
There is no threequel in sight, which is for the best. Yakut humor is purely for our own people, i.e. Only those who speak the Yakut language will understand the meaning. Dubbing is impractical, because Yakutia has its own native language, and it is non-Russian)))
There are no other Yakut hand-to-hand films.
In general, two genres are popular in Yakut cinema: comedies and mystical films.
Uran! There is a thin one on YouTube. HD quality films - Khara Dhai (horror) and Kuta (thriller). There are Russian subtitles! When you have time, take a look!
Vladimir,
Thank you for not holding a grudge for criticizing the film, I was expecting your response to the review more than others.
I see you have information about the film, tell me why there won’t be a threequel?
I will watch these films, but a little later.
uranium,
I myself didn’t like the 2nd part, the 1st was of better quality + the soundtrack by the Yakut rapper Dzhida was present.
I had my hopes up for a girl fight: ninja girl vs. Kitana. Kind of like Sammo Hung's "She Shots Straight" - Joyce Godenzi versus Agnes Aurelio. But no, the girls decided not to strain themselves)))
The sequel collected little money in theaters, but in Yakutsk both parts are sold on DVD.
Vladimir,
It was the realism of what was happening that was lost - the first part was about cosplayers. whose father may not allow him to go out to fight because he has to mow hay, and here the story has turned into nonsense, although 2-3 touches could have fixed everything in the script.
I did too. It would hardly have worked out like in “Shoots Straight”, but like Sonya versus Milena in MK2 it would have been the same, there’s not much choreography needed there.
I was upset that Sub-Zero from the first part was not there.
Frostwave,
There's a cool Reptile instead.