Guerreros de la virtud

So many people are saying that this movie is not worth their time. I am a movie fanatic, and this movie is a perfect movie for people of all ages. It is similar to the Dark Crystal, and many others like it. But what makes this one different is that actual little kids or people with disabilities that have never fit in with the crowd can watch this movie and get some confidence from it. I sure that we all need something or other to show us that we're all right for who we are and maybe that the real message this movie was sending. Go on and think that this movie is horrible, but no matter what I'll show it to my kid and my grandkids, because I enjoyed this movie.

This film is one of those forgotten 90s rip-offs from the Ninja Turtle fall out. It's easy to forget how insane the turtle craze was but it is also easy to forget that the original TMNT movie was actually pretty decent. Most of it's sequels and copies were not.

Which brings us to this little gem...

It's a film so bad it's good. The fight scenes are sloe-mo with wind-blown leaves for no reason other than effect. The warriors of virtue are kangaroos with martial art skills, they personify the virtues eg patience....and it's fight to the death between good and evil. All told it's a great movie for kids that the adults can enjoy while pretending to be too old for it.

I agree whole heartedly with Gene Siskel that this was just a cheap and mediocre hybrid of Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a failed attempt to ride on the coattails of both franchises.

Ryan Jeffers (Mario Yedidia) is a young, disabled boy named who, after being goaded by school bullies, winds up falling into a whirlpool that transports him to a fantasy world called Tao. There he meets the Warriors of Virtue led by Master Chung (Chao-Li Chi). Together, they must defeat the evil overlord Komodo (Angus Macfadyen) before he can conquer Tao, and then move on to Earth itself.

The story moved at a sluggish pace. Ryan is largely useless and spends more time complaining and asking questions than actually helping the heroes or impacting the plot. In fact, the titular warriors aren't very complex and don't get much chance to shine, thanks to Ryan being in the spotlight most of the time. Speaking of which, the warrior costumes were cheesy and ugly with poor lip syncing and obviously fake prosthetic tails.

The stunts and martial arts moves were fairly impressive, but this was mitigated by choppy editing and excessive blurring in most of the fight scenes.

Admittingly, there was some nice scenery, such as the interior and exterior of Komodo's fortress and the lush, forested lifestream where the free people live. Plus, there were some pretty funny and over the top moments, such as when Ming used his flashy martial arts moves to prepare and deliver orders at the restaurant he works. Finally, Angus Macfadyen's hammy performance was better than the rest, and is by far the most enjoyable part of the movie.

Still, any kid who grew up in the 90s (such as myself) would have turned this down for TMNT or Power Rangers any day of the week.

After I saw this film I had mixed feelings about it. The film has a good production design and some very well done fight scenes. On the other hand it has a lousy script. As soon as anybody opens his his mouth you start to cry and beg him/her to shut it immediately because it is really annoying to hear the same old cliches over and over again. It seems that the entire budget was invested in fight scenes etc. and the pitiful rest into the story and/or the actors. I give this film 5 out of 10.

Like most users here commented, Warriors of Virtue had wonderful production design, but the story leaves something to be desired. Maybe it's because of how the writers "kiddy-fied" the story. The action is typical of what you may see from some Hong Kong movies. There's the incredible feats of stunts like jumping tall buildings in a single bound, running over water, and high-powered martial arts. You should especially see the beginning of the movie how chef Ming cooks. It's all done with a semi-slow mo technique. Unfortunately, someone must have a terrible obsession over this technique because you see this way too frequently and in the presence of many falling leaves. Thus, after a while it really gets tiring. The production is pretty good for indoor sets. The production people creates a convincingly large army. It's too bad the story just lack the punch and simply relies on action (slow-mo action at that).

The verdict: 2.5 of 5 stars.