Zhan lang

It's a mystery to me why Wolf Warrior became one of the most successful cinematic franchises in the People's Republic of China.

The acting performances are cringe-worthy at times and especially lead actor Wu Jing has stiff body language yet overacts whenever he expresses himself verbally which makes for an unbalanced contrast. The special effects look as if they had been made by a company specialized on video games in the mid-nineties and the movie constantly exposes these flaws. The two worst offenders are the bullet fired in slow-motion in the beginning of the movie that had me laughing out loud and the pack of wolves that doesn't even look remotely close to real wolves. The story is also forgettable and unimaginative. The locations are equally bland and mostly limited to some exchangeable fields and forests. The movie also includes an unhealthy dose of Chinese propaganda but that often comes along with military action films.

Still, after a weak start, the movie still manages to end up being solid. The action scenes are intense and will keep the audience on the edge of its seat towards the end. The lead character who can be described as a resilient non-conformist with a soft core is easy to empathize with and his tough but tender female sidekick is also sympathetic. The film doesn't overstay its welcone with a concise length around ninety minutes which can be considered a strength these days.

In the end, fans of military action movies can give this solid average film a try and will get exactly what they can expect. The movie is comparable to franchises like Rambo and might sit well with a larger audience. In the end, the movie however fails to be innovative enough to stand out. Before revisting this film, I would rathet watch some old Chuck Norris movies again. These film have more charm and less fake animations.

Leng Feng is a harden super-sniper in the Chinese Army. His unit takes down a drug operation. He disobeys orders to kill the gang-leader. He is reprimanded and is assigned to the special unit Wolf. Meanwhile somewhere southeast Asia, police tries to take down ruthless drug-lord Min Deng, the dead gang-leader's older brother. He coldly has his western mercenaries massacre the police and sends them to avenge his brother.

This is a Chinese military action thriller. It's a lot of action. Some of it is solid but it's rarely realism. They are literally fighting a pack of wolves at one point. Compared to Hollywood, the effects are slightly inferior. There is an impressive amount of real military hardware. It's better than most B-action movies but not quite at the theatrical level. Way too often, the soldiers are standing too close to each other. I guess it conveys something visually but it looks cheesy bad. Overall, I give the action a good passing grade.

The leading guy is hard which could be interpreted as stiff but that's the character. He takes some comedic turns which are quite jarring. The evil plot is questionable at best. It needs to be better written. It should be a simple revenge plot and not that hard to figure out. The good aspect is that the western mercenaries are formidable foes. There is also a cheesy battle over motivations. All of it adds up to a nice fight against tough villains. There is a fine B-movie here but a few stumbles keep it from being good.

A fervid display of Chinese nationalism & jingoistic propaganda, Wolf Warrior treads the same route that countless Hollywood action war blockbusters have walked, and packs some expertly choreographed moments of action as well. However, the story has no meat on it, its characters are dull, the CGI is lame, and the pacing is tedious throughout.

Co-written & directed by Wu Jing who also stars as the lead, the film establishes its tone rather well with its stylishly photographed opening segment, and also makes it abundantly clear who its intended audience are. But once it tries to build a narrative around its primary character, the shortcomings in the script are effortlessly exposed and turns this 90 mins story into a chore.

Not a single character is worth caring about which keeps us detached to everything that unfolds on screen. The action picks up in the second half but it is predictable & uninteresting. Wu brings a physicality to his role that helps keep things afloat but its nationalistic sentiments are overplayed. Scott Adkins plays the baddie and does his usual shtick. And that romance angle is an absolute cringe.

Overall, Wolf Warrior is a bland, boring & blatant propaganda piece that attempts to remind its citizens of their duty & responsibility to their nation but the execution is all over the place. There are a couple intense & captivating scenes of martial arts face-offs where it redeems itself to an extent yet for the most part, the picture remains an unexciting & unstimulating affair. A forgettable, lifeless & uninspiring actioner.

I personally enjoyed this movie a lot. It's rapid-paced, intense and quite entertaining. I've also read that some of the action sequences are actually coming from real Chinese special force members who invented them and put them in use in reality. It's also a milestone in Chinese movie genres. Chinese movie is famous for action genres but this one is the first hybrid of genres of action and military. And it's not tradition Chinese martial arts which is mainly for the purpose of performance and exercise, not practical combat. The actions in this movie are a reflection of, but a little glorified, modern military combat. However, I'd say the directing is the biggest weakness of the movie. It's understandable, because the main protagonist directed the movie himself. He admitted in an interview that he really didn't want to direct the movie because he was not a professional director. He was just an martial arts actor. But he spent a lot time and efforts trying to find some professional directors to direct this movie and investors to invest but in vain because no one thinks this genre would be popular. He had to do everything by himself and invest in the movie out of his own pocket. So the movie took 7 years to make. It turned out to be great success at the Chinese box office. If there were professional people helping him refine the plot as well as directing the movie from the beginning, this movie could've been a lot better. Given all these reasons, I gave it an 8 out of 10.

On a side note, by looking at some of the reviews here, I am amazed by how many people have ridiculous double standards. When it comes to a Chinese military movie, it is just Chinese propaganda so it's lame, untrustworthy and worthless. But when it is Black hawk down or American Sniper or any American patriot movies, it heroic, righteous and meaningful even if the movie is about a western country engaging in a war that causes many civilians to die on other nation's soil. In contrary, China, no matter how bad it is portrayed in western movies, it never incurs any war in other countries. Chinese army is built to protect its people from invaders, not to invade. It's funny that how many westerners are brainwashed by their biased media and "propaganda". The world is big and every story has two sides. People should get out of their home and take a look at the outside world. Only by this way can a person form a more objective, mature outlook of things, especially when it comes to political affairs. I believe I am entitled to say this because I myself has 10+ yrs living experiences in both China and USA and I know how media are manipulated and twisted in both countries. Now I don't fully trust either source solely. Rather, they complement each other pretty well to give you a quite clear picture about what is the truth about everything and how media only serve the interest of their own country, even though at the expense of sacrificing objectivity and authenticity.

Must admit it is simply a propaganda, and it's just for Chinese people. Not surprised to see such a low rate for this movie on IMDb while it is generally rated high on Chinese film reviewing websites. I AM disappointed to the poor story and CGI of this movie but I think it's already not only a movie for entertainment to most of the Chinese people. You probably have no idea what Chinese kids are like today in the country. Most of them set their life goal to move aboard, seems like our country is too weak to compare with other developed countries. Their heroes are Hollywood superheroes, and every time they hear something about our own country they only see the weakness and just laugh at it. This movie, I say, is to build up the faith, the self-confidence to our country. It is to show the kids that our country is much stronger than they imagine, and to show them that every time when they're in danger, it is the country that will protect them from it. As a 17-year-old Chinese kid myself I can strongly feel what I get from this movie. It probably is not a good MOVIE, but it has the power to move all the Chinese people. Go watch Wolf Worrior II. Much better than this one as it can at least be called a MOVIE.