"Fists of Vengeance" is a full-length film from a streaming platform Netflixbased on the TV series "Assassins of Wu" (2019) with Iko Uwaisom starring. Of the lesser-known actors, he keeps company Lewis Tan (son of director and famous stuntman Philippa Tana), which most viewers learned about after the film "Mortal Kombat" (2021) where he played the role of a completely new character in the MK universe - Cole Young. Present in the caste and Jason J. Tobin (TV series "Warrior"). Director - Roel Rein ("Hard Target 2", "The Marine 2", "Death Race 2: Frankenstein Lives", "12 Rounds: Reloaded", "Iron Fist 2").
PLOT of the film "Fists of Vengeance".
Kai Jin goes to Bangkok to avenge the death of one of his own as part of a team of similar killers. But in the process it turns out that the enemy is much older and more dangerous than it seemed.
REVIEW
Personally, I haven’t watched the series, but judging by the general assessments, few people liked it because of its childishness, general derivativeness and banality. And it’s unlikely that watching the series is necessary in order to appreciate the full-length feature. But as one reviewer said: “This film is a middle finger to fans of the series,” justifying this by the fact that it is too divorced from the series and even bears an unjustifiably different name than the original source. An extremely strange and thoughtless decision, since sequels are usually made focusing on the public who liked the main show, and here even many fans of the series did not know that the film was directly related to it. The film picks up where the canceled series left off "Assassins of Wu".
How's the movie? The first thing I appreciated was the relatively expensive picture, which is very rarely seen with old-school actors like Van Damme, Daniels, Dacascas, Seagal, Gruner and others. It would be nice if the level of picture in their films was like this - it wouldn’t be so difficult to watch. This quality is more than enough for a martial arts action movie. But unfortunately, a good picture is just one of the few advantages "Fists of Vengeance", which cannot in any way compensate for all the psychological damage brought to the soul of a film fan after viewing. This is an absolutely childish level of direction, presentation of material, storytelling, which is accompanied by disgusting hip-hop music throughout the film (although this is a matter of musical taste, of course). It would be difficult to find a more tasteless musical solution, but the creators tried... Probably this choice is due to the fact that the target audience of the film is schoolchildren. And in general, it seems that the film was invented by schoolchildren and they came up with it like in a KVN task, when the team must come up with a funny answer to a question in a minute. The story is very boring and uninteresting, like all the characters, including stereotypical villains with supernatural powers who want to take over the world. The female characters (and there are three of them) instead of bringing cuteness to the film, are annoying with their personalities. Iko's character is empty and uninteresting, Tan's character is extremely generic and annoying, trying to be funny, but the jokes are too far-fetched. Conversations and plot developments are easily predictable. It’s hard to believe that at least half of the audience watched the film from beginning to end. This is evidenced by the extremely low rating of the film: on Kinopoisk - 4.7, and on IMDB - 4.40.
ACTION
So, what are we all here for? Of course because of the action scenes. There's quite a lot of action here. And it’s not that it’s bad... it’s unprincipled, inexpressive, monotonous, without any drama or ideas, with absolutely the same tempo-rhythm, without any emphasis on strikes, techniques, or techniques. Most scenes contain a lot of editing - almost every 2-3 movements there is a cut, plus strange and unimaginative angles, and sometimes saggy dynamics. But despite all this, there are still good fragments and they usually last Iko Yuwaise и Lewis Tan. There are no complaints about the physical preparation of both, but the pointlessness of the action scenes due to the weak plot neutralizes all their efforts and the action scenes end up boring and seem somehow pathetic and unnecessary.
There are also quite complex, well-thought-out scenes filmed in one long shot, but again - what's the point of them if without plot and drama, the action scenes seem like just foot-waving, which we have already seen many times? There are no truly memorable scenes here, as well as worthy and interesting opponents for the main characters - they all just attack and immediately fly away from a couple of blows. The main villains are bland and boring as hell.
SUMMARY
If there was a nomination "The stupidest and most unnecessary action movie of the year" - "Fists of Vengeance" one could safely award it with gold. Why is there any need to be modest - this action movie would probably be included in the TOP of the stupidest, most banal and uninteresting films of the genre over the last twenty years. Such films finally finish off the genre without giving a chance for revival. But what's good about such a bad movie? And the fact that after watching this mediocrity you begin to appreciate good films even more and understand why they became the best. If this film is worth watching, it's only because Iko Uwaisa, or rather, because of the action scenes with his participation, since his skills are difficult to spoil even with such crappy direction.
2/5
Yuri Dudin
Especially for Fight-Films.info
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Tags: Fistful of Vengeance, Jason Tobin, Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan, Roel Rein
Tags: Fistful of Vengeance, Jason Tobin, Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan, Roel Rein
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