The Storm Warriors (2009)

Simply A Masterpiece

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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.

There was barely a story in "Storm Riders" but at least it was simple and engaging. The mix between martial arts and CGI was impressive. "Storm Warriors" is an overkill of CGI effects not used properly. There were a couple of sequences that looked very nice only to be overshadowed by effects that didn't make any sense whatsoever. And that is what can be said of the whole movie. There is not one thing that makes sense. it was very hard to sit through a movie that has no heart. I couldn't care less for Wind or Cloud in this mess of a production. The Pang Brothers couldn't even be bothered to put in some nice dialog to explain events. Why on earth should one waste it's time if the directors did not put in the time to make a decent movie. Avoid!

The sequel to Storm Riders, the Chinese comic-adapted movie that broke box office records in 1998, Storm Warriors defiantly delivers more 'Pang' for your buck this time around. Based on the comic 'Fung Wan' we see the return of pop idols Ekin Cheng & Aaron Kwok who are huge teen idols sensations in Asia, although they are now much older than when the first movie came out. But I guess their audience is too.From the opening scene...BANG... We get right into it; There are Fireballs, Flying swords and a lot of graceful martial arts for arts saké thrown in, and a few Sakés will go down well before watching the movie as it it full on and getting in the right mood with some mates will be best as this 100% action CGI OverLord of a movie is geared more towards a younger crowd.I found the BIG orchestra soundtrack was set to OverKill throughout the entire movie, but with an epic battle scene nearly every 5min, it's expected and a little full on, I needed to come up for some air but couldn't as a new fight scene was just around the corner.I particularly liked the Streetfighter-esq still shots placed mid battle that moved across the screen just like the video game.The plot had Elements of Chinese folk lore and a sexy cast like Chu Chu (Yan Tang), it's got it all. A little full on for myself, but the Nintendo generation (old & new) will love it.

Ouch.That pretty sums up how i felt when i watched it. I really believed that this movie had a chance at doing justice to the comic series. I remember that the 1st one was not as bad as part 2. I am not a fan of the comics but part 1 was able to set the story decently for me to enjoy it. Yet part 2, so many years on with improvements in graphics and effects, still failed at the most critical element ... the story telling.I was very lost at several points of the story and fought hard not to jeer at the many parts that mimics other movies. Watched "300"? If you did and liked it, you'll see how this movie "plays tribute" to it. I honestly believe there would be better ways to use those effects into their story telling and fight scenes.The plot is really simple. You have Lord godless who wants to dominate the whole of China, and it's up to our 2 heroes, Wind and Cloud to team up and defeat him. The 2 men each train differently and that difference ended up giving them more problems than godless himself! That's it!! But the movie does showcase some decent CG that i must admit surpassed my expectations in some ways. It does go to show that Asia (not including Japan)'s CG standards have started to be taken seriously. I was quite impressed by the effects used during the duel between Nameless and Cloud. We may have seen better in other movies but that was good enough and well used to tell the power of the fight. Music and sound wise, the sound effects are pretty decent, my ears did hurt abit at certain parts of the movie, especially when there are sword blades clashing and coming into play.If you still want to bother with the movie, i'll suggest you rent it. Skip the big screen, this movie in many ways is not worth revisiting again after one session with it. And add to that, i'm pretty sure we'll be looking at a 3rd part soon. And yes, it ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Let's hope they learn from this mistake of a movie and get back to part 1's standard of story telling with part 2 good use of CG effects!