The Storm Warriors

Recently seen this film on DVD and to tell you the truth this movie is superb in terms of visuals and martial arts choreography.But story wise,I find this a bit of a let down.Being no fan of the original comic books or the previous feature film(which happens to have the same lead actors),I kinda expect it to deliver more than what I have seen the trailers.Despite the film's bad script and simple execution,I still personally enjoyed watching this movie due to its unique visual feasts(yes, the spectacular fight scenes especially during the films climax) and over the top production which is similar or equivalent to Hollywood productions.Go and see it only if you are a martial arts and love fantasy cum action films!If you are the type who loves watching serious and good movies, I suggest you give this movie a miss.

Hi people Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all. I wrote another comment in the discussion user board it has some spoilers so if you want to read it go ahead. First to discuss is I did not watch pang brothers movie even If I did I would not know and I did not watch part one of Fung wan. But I did hear lots of good comments for the first movie.

Overall I did not enjoy the movie it just sucked the enjoyment of movie right out of me within 30 minutes. Even if you treat me to watch this movie again I would not watch it I would rather watch Good Burger again.

The movie has no dialog 1/3 of the time, I did not understand what is going on and really most of the movie did not make sense. Maybe their target audience was comic fans but even my friend who watched part one and read the comics said it was bad. If I could take back the time I watched the movie I would. I would not want to talk too much because I really commented a lot on the discussion board and my eyes are starting to hurt.

The only good point about this movie is the effects are cool and the music is nice but there is just too much music. It was everywhere. If I can convince you not to watch it I did the world a favor.

I rather they give the money they use to make this movie to a 3rd world county that needed the money for basic food and water.

I rate this movie 0/5 really I give this film nothing.

If you (the movie) did not even have normal dialog in this movie to make me, a common audience understand what is going on. All the special effects in the world cannot save you (the movie). Really I think I would count the number of lines each person said. And the movie really really makes no sense half the time.

Even for a bad film like good burger I would give it half a point for having Abe Vigoda in the movie. Oh if you do not know who he is he was in Godfather.

I just put my point of view and what I think. If you still want to watch this movie go ahead. It has cool effects and good music. But storyline don't count on it. But I would rather wait for the DVD to be out buy it together with my friends and pass it around to watch. Just one DVD.

Just like Forbidden kingdom and dragon ball, wasted money.. all of them the money could have fed hundreds of starving children.

I'm not Chinese. I'm not a Wind and Cloud comic fan-boy. Perhaps these are the reasons that I can offer an objective opinion of this film?

The first Storm Warriors (released as The Storm Riders) excited visually, taking wuxia film to an all-new level of excellence; however, it suffered from a weak, rushed plot, with references being made to characters and events non-followers just found bemusing, proving that there really is no right way to please everybody.

This sequel suffered from the same flaws, only it wasn't so much as the plot being rushed this time around as it was the characters. The problem here is that for those who aren't already fans, nothing is known - and precious little revealed - about each individual, so when it comes time that we SHOULD be caring, it's not possible. But thankfully, the Pang Brothers' beautiful direction makes it something of an over-sight. I'll come back to this in a moment.

The pacing is good for an action film, with no time wasted in getting down to the root of the story, which is basically an average episode of Dragonball Z anyway. True, action/kung fu freaks would likely pine for some more traditional choreography, but the Pang Brothers lift this film out of the chop-socky genre and into that of fine art, defeating art-house kung fu classics, The Blade, and Ashes of Time on style points by unanimous decision.

Watching the film, it's interesting to know just how big a fan of the comic the Brothers are, for each shot is so lovingly captured, at points it almost looks like paintings in motion, and with their panel-by-panel method of storytelling, comics - if well done - could almost be deemed as such. And where CGI and after-effects are indeed the sine qua non for getting their vision of the tale across on-screen, where I may have argued in the past that such techniques "kill the art of film-making", here, they AMPLIFY it, breathing enchantment into every scene, every shot, every second, leaving something of wonder to the memory come the final credits.

I could now go on about all of the awesome techniques the fighters use, and how the cinematography fully captures them - and indeed, they're well worthy of a mentioning - but instead I'll simply point out the obvious issues to address before one decides to give this a view:

• if you're uninterested by "style over substance", you won't enjoy this film

• if you want an involving story, this film is not for you

• if you want Fist of Legend-style kick arse kung fu, watch something else

• if, however, you want to give this film a real chance, you may just come away a little bit richer for having done so... I know I did.

First of all, let me say that I am a fan of the comic book series and really enjoyed the first Storm Riders movie. I can only say that this movie is an embarrassment. If I put myself in the shoes of someone who has never seen or heard of the comic book, I would be completely lost as to what was going on. It is an understatement to say that the storyline is underdeveloped and that there is little character development. I also did not feel that the special effects were up to the standard for the year 2009. If you are a bit brain-dead and not looking to think at all, this movie might be right for you because there is little point in trying to follow any kind of plot and you could just sit there and stare at lots of pretty colours, but even so, I would think there are better things you can watch. I was constantly looking at my watch hoping the pain would end and the $10 cheap tuesday ticket price i paid to watch this could have been better spent too. The female characters in the movie were of no importance, and Nicholas Tse's character was quite pointless too - maybe he will be back in a yet another horrible sequel which will go for special effects over an engaging plot.

In summary, possibly one of the worst movies of all time, because its hard enjoy the special effects and to care for the characters and their battles when you have no reason sympathize with any of them due to the fact that there is absolutely no storyline.

Green-screened movies and manga/ anime (graphic-novel/ cartoon) adaptations are a dime a dozen these days-- so what makes "Storm Warriors" (based on a Hong Kong "wuxia" comic series) any different? Well, unlike Hollywood movie adaptations which tend to tone/ dumb things down for wider/ mainstream appeal, or Japan movie adaptations which try to stuff all the original story/ characters in, Hong Kong movie adaptations are generally about entertaining their fan-base-- even at the risk of becoming self-referential/ indulgent "B"-movies.

And the "magic-(kung)fu" style/ stance aptly known as "Mastery of Ten Thousand Swords" shows up right at the beginning, as if Hong Kong/Chinese cinema is staking its claim as the rightful home of "magic-(kung)fu" movies. Jedi Knights can only ape, but never muster up, THIS much style.

That's right, "Storm Warriors" is an unabashed attempt at THE "magic-(kung)fu" comic-book movie-- complete with comically symbolic names and philosophical kungfu-babble, as well as the requisite series of achingly slow 2-minute "power-ups/ stand-offs" followed by dizzyingly fast 2-second "fights/ contacts", etc.. By starting right at the END of the story, "Storm Warriors" shrewdly (shamelessly?) avoids any semblance of story-telling or scale... in favor of merely showcasing the "end-game" battles that are being fought-- with NO explanations for the uninitiated.

And unlike its prequel "Storm Riders", which tried semi-successfully to make a "realistic/ conventional" movie based on an earlier story-arc in the same Hong Kong comic series, this movie simply aims to realize the experience of reading/ re-imagining its "wuxia" battles-- with frequent "fades-to-black", extreme close-ups and closely-edited montages... and once I realized/ accepted I was watching a manga/ comic-in-motion, I actually had fun "interpreting/ analyzing" each "panel".

In other words, just go and do your own research if you didn't "get it"... and if you didn't have fun watching it, you're obviously not its target audience-- "wuxia" fans waiting to see the next stage in the cinematic realization of "magic-(kung)fu" battles (the opening "Mastery of Ten Thousand Swords" is now CANON in "wuxia"-fantasy cinema). Never mind if you missed (like I did) the "magic-(kung)fu" movie craze started by the "Buddha Palm" in the 1960s (filmed in black-and-white) or the "Warriors of Zu Mountain" in the 1980s (filmed with wire-fu)-- thanks to the advances in green-screen and CGI technology, "Storm Warriors" is able to show you some of the wild "magic-(kung)fu" battles envisioned by generations of "wuxia"novelists/artists with all their crazy chi/energy.

Of course, you can fault the directors/ writers for the lack of story/ character development-- or just blame it on comic fans who already know the story/ characters (the comic series ended ages ago), as well as "wuxia" genre fans who will able to figure it out (most of it "wuxia" clichés), or even the investors who wouldn't put up the money for a 9-hour trilogy upfront.... But you can certainly see where most of the money went-- though I wished more of it was spent fleshing out the first half of the movie, instead of endlessly "leveling-up" in the second (where budget limitations really show).

Personally, I admire the producers'/ directors' guts (foolhardiness?) in splurging on the EFFECTS and scrimping on the script (instead of the other way round like most films with a tight budget). Eg. The lighting/ texture of CGI-background/effects matches with the live-action actors so well/ evenly that it usually does NOT distract/ detract from the movie (always the highest compliment for CGI); and the choice/ ability to light/ color the film with "natural/ ambient" light is a welcomed sight for sore eyes strained by heavily color-corrected sci-fi/ fantasy movies (hiding their CGI in "soft sepia", "cool blue", etc.)-- so "Storm Warriors" aimed rather low, and mostly hit its mark.

In short, this movie is nothing if not "pulp/cult", and a "guilty pleasure" at that too-- the story/ characters may not resonate, but the visuals can certainly be relished... depending on how you liked them. For me, there were at least 2 things (no, not the two male leads) that they got right: "Mastery of Ten Thousand Swords" at the very beginning, and "Capricious Dance of the Demons" at the very end-- but there was really a lot of "filler" to get through...