War

It is usually easy to tell when a movie director comes from the world of the music video because the shots last an average of 10 seconds before some flashy edit. Sometimes I can forgive it (Michael Bay) but sometimes it can very much take you out of the movie. I knew going in that this movie was directed by a music video director and that this was his first motion picture, but with Jet Li fighting Jason Statham in a movie called War, I figured I could forgive the director if he brought the action.


Jack Crawford(Jason Statham) is an F.B.I agent in the Asian gang division and he and his partner start the movie engaged in a shoot out and his partner shoots someone in the face. That person turns out to be Rogue(jet Li), a hired assassin no one has ever caught. Hell, no one even know what he looks like. It turns out he did not kill the assassin and the assassin comes back for revenge and kills Crawford's partner and his wife and child. Three years later Crawford is still obsessed with finding Rogue and it has ruined his marriage and life. He is still in the Asian Gang division of the F.B.I and it seems that Rogue has resurfaced. In the middle of this we are introduced to two different Asian gangs, who are at war with each other. Rogue appears to be playing these gangs off each other in hopes of Asian gang domination. The rest of the movie is a slew of exposition, action sequence and wild, awful twists that come from nowhere and seem to be from the writers' inability to come to a conclusion about the movie.


I was not asking for that much from this movie and it would not have been difficult to satisfy me, yet this movie managed to fully disappoint me. First off Jet Li and Jason Statham only have one fight scene and it comes at the tail end of the movie and only lasts like 2 minutes. The first hour has very limited action, focusing on creating this myth for the character of Rogue, I guess to make us fear him even more. The movie lacks the energy and punch that the good action/fight movies need. Even comparing it to these actors' movies it is awful. While Crank, The Transporter, The One and Black Mask, lack being grounded in any sense of logical reality, they moved fast, packed a big punch and came to a pretty satisfactory conclusion. This movie has none of that, although this movie does have ninjas, so it isn't all bad.


When we do finally get action, it turns out to be pretty good action, especially the big shoot out inside the tea shop. The body count gets high and the bullets are loud and furious, but there is just something missing. I usually enjoy the hell out of watching Stoic Statham grunt one liners in between crazy action stunt, but he seems to be slumming it. Li, never the actor, is 44 years old and has lost a bit in his step. He still manages one incredible sword fighting scene with those aforementioned ninjas, but he looks like he is trying now, whereas he used to be effortless in his ass kicking. Devon Aoki(Sin City) shows up as the daughter of one of the gang lords, but whereas she is usually sexy, dangerous and sultry, here she is boring and average, which I guess follows suit int he movie.


The dialogue is awful, but not nearly as awful as the two major twists that abruptly bring this movie to a conclusion. I am all for twists that seemingly come from nowhere, but in those movies, the writer and director were smart enough to show us how they managed to pull off such stunts, by placing things in the movie to give us clues that we were just not paying attention to because the story was so good. Here, they truly come from nowhere and make absolutely no sense in the story being told. The characters try to give an explanation to their actions that bring on these twists, but they are not sufficient. In fact, they would have needed more scenes with ninjas to off set these twists to make this movie worth it.