Synopsis

Japanese evil warlord Lord Godless desired to conquer China. He imprisoned a large number of martial artists and tried to make them subjugate. Among the prisoners were Cloud and the martial arts elder statesman Nameless. Wind came to the rescue. The trio was badly wounded by Lord Godless’s evil martial arts attack. Chu Chu was also knocked out when she blocked Cloud from Lord Godless’s strike. The remaining martial artists sacrificed their lives to save the trio, in the hope that the trio would beat Lord Godless one day and save the country.

Chu Chu was badly wounded and stayed unconscious. Cloud was filled with remorse and vowed to take revenge. Wind chose to take the evil way to quickly boost up his martial arts skills, so that he could protect the people. During his training, he met the girl who changed his life, Dream. Meanwhile, the troop of Lord Godless came to attack. Wind’s training was interrupted when he tried to save Dream from Lord Godless’s assault. After some killings, Wind ran away and disappeared….

Lord Godless took The Emperor in captivity and stationed his troops in Heaven Cave. Cloud arrived alone and started a combat with Lord Godless. Lord Godless had the upper hand. In the meantime, the half-evil Wind appeared and joined the battle.  During the fight, they inadvertently discovered the secret of the sovereign. The real intention of Lord Godless’s invasion was related to an ancient tomb, a forbidden ground buried with the Royal family’s secret. The truth was finally revealed. At last, how would the battle end?  Who would eventually rule over the country?

Movie Review

The Storm Warriors is the follow up to the highly successful Storm Riders 11 years ago. And it is also based on the highly rated & hugely popular Chinese comics. That sure gives the Storm Warriors a good starting. After all, like the Pang brother say “If all the fans who watched Storm Riders come back for Storm Warriors, then this will be one big blockbuster!”.

Indeed it is. It has quite good CGI, comparable to that of Hollywood standards (maybe not the best but near there). The photography & background are quite astounding. And the fact it has both its main leads come back to act in them: Aaron Kwok and the more down-to-earth Ekin Cheng.

All these will surely pull in the crowd. But what will most likely stop it is the very basic of them all – the story, which is rather predictable and at times boring. Sure we all know when good vs evil, we always root for the good. But we can only do so if we can connect with the characters more… and that seems to be lacking here, making the movie more of a visual feast with a hollow story.

Conclusion & Ratings

6.8. It’s a pity that this oriental superpower movie do not fall in the same league as the more well scripted Hollywood blockbuster of similar genre.

However, it is still a good enough effort for Asian cinema & very much for HK -  for now at least.

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