Warriors of Future

The storyline is simple, nothing confusing and out of the box. Just chill and enjoy the movies without thinking too much on the storyline. The CGI in the movies has already reach a standard comparable with US movie, consider that it is a Kong Kong company that makes the CGI. The acting is average for some actor. (e.g when you are in war, why the actor faces are still clean and shinny). It is not a perfect storyline, with loophole and some does not make any sense, but good effort put into this movie hearing that it took years to make. Nevertheless, I did enjoyed the movie for their action & CGI, the explosion and the fights.

The story is basically bits and pieces of many other better movies in this genre, with added unnecessary melodramatics. That's not to say it isn't worth a watch, because there are many awesome action and fight scenes, and although a little sloppy at first, the visual effects do get better and are actually impressive for a non-Hollywood production. The story is extremely cliched and predictable, so don't expect anything revolutionary here, and you'll notice some plot and technical issues. It's like each of the three writers picked their favorite Hollywood film in this genre and mashed it all together. The editing could've been better, and the directing had many typical rookie mistakes. The pacing was spot-on, as was the score. The casting and performances are decent for the most part, cheesy dialogue aside. If you're a fan of this genre and have nothing better to watch, you'll enjoy this one.

My rating logic: "10" for CGI, "4" for the script. (10+4)/2= "7"

I've been on to this before it hit Netflix. After seeing it, I felt frustrated by the script. They could've fleshed out the story if they cut the VO in the beginning and add 20 mins of ground laying and threat intro. I saw the 2 deleted scenes from One Cool Film YouTube channel before watching the film. I preferred those 2 scenes over the VO. It makes more narrative sense. Now it feels like I'm only watching only Act 2 & 3 of the film. Because of that, the emotional scenes and sense of urgency all fell flat. There were times I felt like I should feel be sad, worried, or a feel a certain way, but I just can't because I don't know these characters. Mind you, Act 1 is just a VO. The only one whom the audience knows more about was Louis Koo's Tyler, but that he couldn't shine because the time was ticking. In short, they handle the characters and stakes like how they did in Morbius: the story fell flat because the creators cheaped out on Act 1. Then, everything came after that missed.

I heard this version was cut down to pass China government's film board and to preserve the fast pace action-flick momentum. So, I really do hope One Cool Film will release a director's cut because the 2 deleted scenes (slow-paced and ground laying) was excellent. I want to see these slow-pace scenes in the movie!

The deleted scenes (sorry, can't post the links)

1) Soldiers badged into a fenced community, went up a steel ladder. In a dry and dusty apt, a dehydrated youth was building a model-size Xmas tree from metal scraps. The youth (turn out wearing a leg brace on one leg) ran out with large empty containers after hearing water announcement. The mass gathered. Rationed water was given through coordinated rainfall. The meteor hit. Giants vines grew, wreaking the the buildings and fenced community.

2) The professor blankly stared out the window of the helicopter seeing the buildings and skynets. "Mankind is really absurd. Since the Industrial Revolution, mankind used 200 years to get the Earth sick. Then, mankind wanted to use 10 or more years to cure it. In the end, nothing was solved. We only ended up making dozens of fishbowls to trap ourselves inside." The professor leaned closer to the window. "I think Pandora is God's gift to us. A chance for mankind."

Scene closes up in the female commander. "The only thing I believe is that I believe in nothing. My responsibility is to ensure that no matter what the circumstances are, there's always plan B." The music starts rolling.

The professor turned to the female commander, looking concern. "What's plan B?" The female commander looked back at him. Scene cut to helicopters flying into B-16 area, probably heading to the base.

Good things:

CGI was excellent! Couldn't believe something like this was done by a Hong Kong production company. It's a great CGI portfolio. I want to see them participating in making Gundam or similar franchises. Hey, Hollywood maybe you can hire them to do your CGIs.

No real story, you just get some fight with robots and aliens just to save the already destroyed earth. The camera was moved sometimes so fast you couldn't really feel and see the set. The movie shows you humans, fighting, some cliches and that's it. It's a waste of time. I watched it in English. It was horrible. You wont remember a thing in a few hours. The characters are not well written. I have the feeling that they wanted to copy some crappy western style alien fighting movies, and they copied the bad dialogues and characters auswelle. All in all it's a 5. You can watch it, or leave it in the background but for that purpose you should just put some nice music on.

Warriors of Future, the long-awaited dream project from producer and actor Louis Koo, is a Hong Kong sci-fi action film that delivers on its initial attempt at CGI spectacle. It is a groundbreaking entry for Hong Kong cinema, catapulting into the realm of the big-budget CGI blockbuster filmmaking.

In the year 2055 on an environmentally-damaged and war-torn Earth, a meteorite strikes a futuristic Hong Kong, now known as B-16 district. A giant alien plant, named Pandora, has rapidly grown out from the rubble, causing devastation but also purifying the air. Scientists have devised a missile to alter the genetic makeup of Pandora to stop its growth and keep purifying the air. Tyler and Johnson of the B16 Air Force are sent to carry out the mission.

As a film, Warriors of Future is a triumphant opportunity both seized and missed all wrapped in a $450 million dollar bow.

The CG action scenes, while not up to Hollywood standards, are impressive for a first attempt. First-time director Ng Yuen Fai, who previously worked as a special effects artist, uses a quick cut style that's thrilling in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it type way. Although it is not photorealistic, everything visually falls into place and it has a consistent anime look of its own.

Unfortunately, Warriors of Future suffers from a severe lack of originality and thin plotting and characterizations in a script that's written around the action set pieces. The majority of the script's flaws could have been easily fixed by cutting out a shot or delaying certain information to create suspense, just Screenwriting 101 level stuff. All of which wouldn't have cost Mr. Koo an extra cent.

The overall results are Yin and Yang. Audiences will scratch their heads going, "The CG is decent. If you got that right, why couldn't you script this story better? Isn't writing the easier thing out of the two?"

Everything had traces from something we've seen before. I counted up to twenty sci-fi films that Warriors of Future was pulling ideas from, including Avatar, Iron Man, District 9, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and even the Batman Arkham games. It'd make one killer drinking game.

In the acting department, Sean Lau and Phillip Keung come out as the MVPs, breathing sweet life into the otherwise empty CG environments and helping Louis Koo carry the film in front of the camera. The buddy dynamic between the trio works well.

Nick Cheung gives a stilted, steely-eyed "smell the fart" performance that's straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Carina Lau and Tse Kwan Ho are both underused, the former having to deliver exposition and the other in a taciturn role.

That all said and done, Warriors of Future was a good time. Admittedly, I am biased being from Hong Kong.

Louis Koo's dream of stimulating the Hong Kong film industry is a noble and, some might say, romantic notion. Koo has invested so much of his own money into this small island in China to build up its entertainment industry, sometimes making risky business decisions. For example, Koo deliberately chose to do all the visual effects in one company in Hong Kong. Normally, they are done by multiple companies across the globe for efficiency.

That sentiment has touched people. Ever since it was reported that the film had a disappointing box office in Mainland China, Hong Kong audiences have actively gone out to support the film. It was packed for a weekday screening in my theater.

Warriors of Future ended up being more than a one-off theatrical experience, but an actual showreel of future CGI-driven Hong Kong films to come. Computer effects aside, seeing Hong Kong actors in mech suits battling robots was an eye-opening spectacle in itself. Finally, when the credits rolled, everybody intuitively stayed in their seats and waited for the mid-credits scene like a Marvel movie. It all felt very communal.

So from these sentiments alone, Hong Kong audiences will get more out of Warrior of Future. Honestly, I too am moved by Louis Koo's vision and even as I'm cracking jokes here, I don't feel like punching down on this film. It has my respect for its ambitions and it'll probably be remembered as the pioneer film. However, the film will struggle to impress an international audience as English-speaking audiences won't be as forgiving with its script and matter-of-factly written subtitles. The grammarian in me still eagerly wants to add a "the" to the title.

If there is going to be a sequel to Warriors of Future, more effort needs to be devoted into the writing and storytelling. Local audiences won't be so forgiving the second time around.

With my palms together into a prayer pose and sending positive vibes, I eagerly await the sequel.