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Monday, December 20, 2010

[3.00/10] Wushu Warrior (2010)



"Wushu Warrior" takes place in 19th Century China, where Lord Edward Lindsey is operating an opium running scheme. When he has one of his adversaries, Reverend Elders, killed, the reverend’s son Jonathan is taken to a small village on the outskirts of the big city. Upon learning his father has died, Jonathan is taken under the wing of village head Uncle Pei. When Jonathan sees two kids arguing, he learns that they are studying the martial art of wushu. When Jonathan asks Uncle Pei to teach him, Pei resorts to training him in secret. Truth to be told, this Canadian-Chinese co-production is probably the most poorly-executed and uninspired martial arts flick I've seen an my life, as it fails to deliver on every single level. It's a complete rip-off of many, many other and better films of this genre and it's shot and choreographed with zero imagination. The story is a standard fare, that pretty much contains every possible cliche known in history of martial arts movies. It shamelessly borrows an already tired ideas, without even changing them a bit, in order to avoid the plagiarism. The funniest thing about "Wushu Warrior" is the fact that every single Chinese actor in this film speaks English at all times, which makes it even less authentic and credible. Not a surprise though, since the director himself is a noneAsian. The writing is completely sub-par, as all the lines are laughably ridiculous and stiffly-delivered by the actors involved. In terms of acting, this flick also fails to make a good impression. All the English-speaking actors are wildly unknown, and lacking in both, acting and fighting skills. You won't believe for a minute that Tod Fennell is a warrior and a martial arts master. On a positive note, the Chinese actors are vastly better, as they play way more engagig characters. Although pretending to be a martial arts movie, "Wushu Warrior" is almst lacking in action, especially in its first half. And as soon as the action starts though, you find yourself even more bored than before, as the fight scenes are horribly-staged and amateurishly-choreographed, accompained with poor wire work and laughably cheesy special effects. Same could be said for the training sequnces, which are mostly boring, rather forced and ridden with cliches. The lack of budget is obvious, as "Wushu Warrior" looks and feels like a cheap made-for-TV movie with its low production values, extremely cheesy special effects and technical incompetence. Yes, the Chinese scenery is exotically gorgeous as always, but that's not enough to save this film from being visually poor and hardly engaging. With its lame and thoroughly predictable story, third-rate fight choreography, and dull and uninspired direction, "Wushu Warrior" should be considered as one of the worst martial arts movies ever created.

8 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

In other words, a really good candidate for the guys at Riff Trax, huh?

Unknown said...

OH, I've never even heard of this for a start. It sounds like a joke from your opinions. AHA!

Btw, I love the tinkerbell christmas picture you've just placed! Very nice ;)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Alex, absolutely :) It was more of a spoof, rather than an actual martial arts flick. It's kinda 'rifftrax-ed' already, if you know what I mean :)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

J-san, you're so right - it was a complete joke. This film's not even ashamed of its utter silliness.

Yesterday I was looking for a nice Christmas picture to place on my blog, and I came across this sparkly Tinkerbell animated pic, which I immediately fell in love with. It's adorable, isn't it? :)

Unknown said...

Persecuted white boy learns the way of martial arts from wizened Asian man. How many times was that done already 3, 4 million times? Honestly, someone should keep a record on how many times a plot formula can be recycled. This particular one could probably set a record. This sounds like it would make a great addition to my dvd cliche drinking game. ;)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Melissa, dear, you said it better than me :) I just have nothing to add.

Do me a favor and don't waste your time with it.

Vapor said...

I'll just rewatch Karate Kid. Thanks for the heads-up.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Vapor, absolutely! Karate Kid is a million times better movie, and also an enjoyable one.