A Dinastia da Espada

I am a pretty big martial arts fan. Unfortunately I usually don't buy any movies without seeing them or doing a little research on them. I'm embarrassed to say that I bought it based on the cool box....I saw Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan on the cool cover so I thought there was no loosing with this DVD. Boy was I wrong. This must be the lamest and most boring movie I have seen in the past years. The plot sucks, the action sucks, the scenery sucks...its just SUCKS! If you see this movie thinking that you're going to see Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan you're mistaken...they have minimal roles in this film. About 5 minutes combined.....4 for Donnie and 1 for Jackie. BUUUUUUUUUUU

My understanding was that Twins Effect 2 was changed from a proper sequel to the Twins' vampire-busting film to a period film because the (mainland) Chinese authorities wouldn't allow a film to be released that featured "supernatural" elements, such as vampires. I am a bit puzzled now though, because Twins Effect 2 features plenty of supernatural things - no monsters, but lots of magic powers and what-not (and prophecies of destiny etc). It's slightly reminiscent of The Stormriders, but less epic and vastly more juvenile smile.gif

Gillian & Charlene play "Dumbbell Traders" - women who trade in male slaves, in a land ruled by an evil queen where all men are slaves and love is outlawed. Jackie Chan's son and some gawky teenager play two such dumbbells, who come across an artefact that implies one of them might be the true king of the land - thus begins a quest, of sorts, and a love story. Aw, how sweet?

Charlene is in full on sassy mode again, whilst Gillian has the quieter, more serious role (again). The film makes it clear just how much Ah Gil has outgrown Ah Sa in every way - her acting and her appearance are much more mature, and I think the time for the Twins phenomenon must be running out. I think this is the debut film for Jackie Chan's son, and I'm sure nobody is at their best when they're thrust into a leading role for their first performance, but I have to say he comes off especially badly - he has zero acting ability or charisma, and he's sadly inherited his father's looks (but without the talent to compensate). Daniel Wu gives a fairly good performance, and Donnie Yen has presence as a character called "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", but the only really great performance in the film is a hilarious cameo from Leung Ka Fai.

The film does have high production values, with some great sets and costumes, but they're kind of wasted on the juvenile story and direction. There was potentially a great film in here, but not with this cast and crew.

The film does have quite a few fight scenes, choreographed by Donnie Yen I would assume, since they rely heavily on over the top wirework and his personal favourite, digital stuntmen. There are some very innovative wire sequences, but the quality of the computer graphics is very poor, and the digital scenes are very unconvincing and unimpressive. The special effects in this film are actually worse than those in Stormriders. The action scenes also suffer from some major plagiarism - there are lots of moves and shots lifted from any number of Yuen Wo Ping films, which is to be expected from Donnie, but there are also a couple of shots ripped off blatantly from Ryuhei Kitamura's AZUMI. Does he really need to resort to that? Worse still, the highly anticipated Jackie vs Donnie fight is almost a remake of the Donnie vs Jet fight in HERO. How short does he think people's memories are?

All in all, Twins Effect 2 is not a good film - but it has moments that are enjoyable, especially if you think of it as a kid's film, which I guess you have to expect with a vehicle for Twins. Given the time and budget they had for making the film, it's somewhat unforgivable that they didn't do a better job though.

In the mythical land of Huadu, Charcoal Head, a humble boy born to rule an empire must undertake his journey to claim his throne. It is an epic action adventure combining romance, fantasy, comedy and cutting edge Hong Kong style martial artistry.

While this film had some good humor, a decent plot and some very odd twists and turns (and a running gag about mustaches)... it just fell short for me for one big reason: the special effects. The effects are very well done, much better than the flotsam SyFy pumps out, but it still takes away from the idea of a martial arts movie.

Case in point: Donnie Yen is an amazing martial arts master (as seen in the "Ip Man" films, among others) and in one scene he fights Jackie Chan. Why did this need special effects? Instead of having glorious natural movements, you have to add in cheesy computer graphics and aspects that clearly were not there? Chan and Yen do not require this -- they are (or at least should be) a selling point all their own.

That aside, it was pretty decent. I am unclear about the character "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"... this film seems to borrow from the film of that name (what with the silly flying). But is this an homage? A cheap ripoff? Why use that name within a film that clearly is not connected to the classic, or even on the same level?

Oh well. Still a good movie. Not the best martial arts film, and certainly not the best from Well Go, but worth seeing. It is too bad that American audiences had to wait eight years for this to finally be released... we need more Donnie Yen and Bingbing Fan.

This film reminded me of Halloween 3. Remember? The third film that had nothing to do with the continuing storyline of Michael Myers. Thats pretty much what this film does... takes the same title from an entertaining first film and slaps it onto a film with a completely different story.

Apparently, the Twins Effect films are not supposed to have any continuity because it's just a franchise vehicle to market these popular HK twin celebrities. Which is sad, because the first film was entertaining. This film is just strange and more so comedic. In laymens terms, women have taken over the world and an evil woman sorcerer wants to change all the remaining men in the world into women as well. I honestly found myself fast forwarding a lot in this film because I kept getting so disinterested with the plot. Which upsets me because I love HK films and rarely do that. I even bought this film based on the fact I loved the first one... but I'm sadly selling it off. It's not that much of a keeper. This film has only one good scene, the cameo fight scene with Jackie Chan. Which you can find that entire fight online somewhere without having to watch this film.

Okay, so it wasn't the best thing ever saved to celluloid, but it is not so terrible as some reviewers may claim. I was interested in seeing this film for two reasons: 1) Jaycee made his acting debut and I was quite curious as to what he could do and 2) Donnie Yen vs. Jackie Chan. Now, Jaycee has a ways to go yet, certainly... he had, I think, all of one expression for most of the movie, but he's riding in on dad's coattails (he's Jackie Chan's son) and it's his debut. I think he may have potential, he just needs some refining. There were also some problems within the set itself, i.e., Jackie nearly bowed out because his son starred in the film and he didn't want to cast any shadows on his boy's beginning. I'm glad that didn't happen, personally, but I do admit the anxiously awaited Yen vs. Chan fight was a bit of a disappointment; it had no real relevance to the movie at all and looks like the moral struggle Jackie faced (the 'should I even be in this movie?' problem) reflected here. Jaycee and Jackie are not in the same scenes and the guest appearance by Jackie ends up seeming more like a hand out than anything.

The Twins are the Twins- what did you expect? Despite that, I find myself actually liking these girls, against my better judgment. Daniel Wu plays the most interesting and tragic character in his usual style. The premise of the movie? A woman has her heart broken because she finds her boyfriend and identical twin sister cheating on her. Of course, the man (played by Wu) had been lied to by the twin and didn't know he was cheating (think they were just caught kissing, actually), but that means nothing. The broken-hearted woman magically imprisons her sister and has the man castrated. They both end up serving her and aid her rise to power. She becomes ruler of her own city where the men are enslaved and sold as beasts of burden. Loving relationships between the sexes are outlawed and it is up to Jaycee's character to free the city and restore balance and natural relations, where all are equal and no one sex is subjugated by another. I think he was a 'Chosen One' type, who's coming had been foretold or some such.

Lots of action, and it's not BAD, just noticeably CGI, which is distracting. We're used to being 'above' that kind of amateur special effects works by now. Makes me think the budget was used up by the starring cast. The movie had its moments, it's worth a rental at least, but it's not so terrible that it needs to be avoided upon pain of death as some might have you believe. If nothing else, it's colorful and lively; just don't expect an epic blockbuster, take the movie with a grain of salt (it is supposed to be a spoof), and you'll come out all right.