xalfadeimdb

This is a very well made movie all around. The movie is will acted, featuring a bunch of interested colorful characters brought to life by very good character actor performances. The movie is very well directed. Full style and it moves along at a good pace. The movie explores interesting themes of change, tradition, and honor among thieves. The setting of the late 90's Hong Kong underworld is full energy. Fans of Asian cinema will be very familiar with these archetypes but The Triad Zone handles them well enough that they don't feel like stereotypes. Truly, the movie doesn't have a weak point. The Sopranos set in Asia with the style of a good music video.

The one possible hang up is that The Triad Zone makes some bold creative choices. I think most of those choices stick the landing and enhance the movie. If your idea of a crime drama is a 3 hour dry awards bait, you may find this film to be too quirky. I think most films will not have that problem.

Also note that the IMDB description is 100% incorrect. This has nothing to do with a troop of comedians and acrobats. The correct non-spoiler description for the movie should be "A Triad crime family boss struggles to hold on to power while trying to balance tradition and the changing times."

If you aren't familiar with the Zeiram franchise, take your favorite Saturday Morning action cartoon from the 1980's, adapt it to live action, and add HR Giger-like R rated special effects to it. Zeiram 2 continues that formula of taking campy action packed fun and adding impressive horror special effects to it.

Zeiram 2 covers a lot of the same group as the original but you can tell that director Keita Amemiya feels a lot more comfortable with the material. The main character Iria is a bad ass space bounty hunter in both, but she comes across as a lot more friendly and relatable in this sequel than in the first film. The Zeiram monster is impressive in both movies, but monster lends itself to better action sequences in the second movie and far more horrific scenes involving the biological elements in the sequel. The fight scenes between Iria and the Zeiram are better choreographed and varied in the second movie. Outside of the iconic opening of the first film, which is probably the peak of the entire franchise, the second movie is a plain better movie overall.

Do you need to see the first movie to enjoy the original? The second movie assumes that you've seen the original. The concept of "The Zone" is explained in the first movie and the second movie just assumes that you know how it works. The second movie expands on the character relationships of the first movie. If you can watch both movies, then watch both movies. If you can only watch one movie then Zeiram 2 is the way to go.

Judging Zeiram 2 as a stand alone film away from it's franchise, they don't make action movies like this anymore. No one uses practical effects like this anymore. No one makes movies with this kind mix of PG tone and R rated violence at the same time. I'm reviewing this movie in 2022, and as such I think that Zeiram 2 is a worth while sci-fi action movie that stands as a cool hidden gem from an era that is gone and is no longer coming back.

The movie is very simple. What you see in the trailer is what you get. There's not a lot to it. But the real magic that makes this movie special is that it fully commits to it's scenario. No cop-outs. No easy solutions. The main characters are put into a horrific scenario, and you have to experience it with them in all it's vertigo inducing glory.

The movie is very well directed. It's visually stunning and very intense. It's technically a low budget movie by 2022 standards but it doesn't feel cheap at all. The effects are convincing. The movie moves along at a good pace. The plot is simple but tight. There really aren't any unreasonable plot holes.

The acting is good. The characters are fairly cliche so you shouldn't expect an Academy Award winning performance here. But I felt like Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner did a good job of expressing their emotions and the terror of the situation. They did well with the material given.

Overall, I think this was an excellent movie. Fans of man vs nature type of horror movies like Jaws will find a lot to like here.