Shock Wave - Ultimatum a Hong Kong

Has become one of the best Chinese actors from H.K. He matured perfectly and finally evolved into a completely believable and convincing actor who likes all the great famous actors with house known faces, but the characters he or she played, their images would evolve into those roles they played, no matter their faces so familiar to us, the characters they played became the virtually believable persons on the screen. Andy Lau finally became such actor, he aged well and matured perfectly.

This movie is perhaps one of the very best suspenseful cop thrillers I've ever seen so far. Screenplay, directing, cast, editing, CGI effects, stunt, choreography, montage...and best of all, the voices in Mandarin are so good, almost in impeccable level. The romance between the two main characters was so well performed and profound. No unnecessary sexual scenes, only embraces and one last kiss.

The female leading actor, a truly talented natural performer I rarely found in Chinese movies, a great future star ensured.

If I have to find a flaw, it would be the make-up of the terrorist leader, bleached snow white long hairs, white jacket...Jesus, no terrorists, especially the leader would dress and look so outstandingly and so ridiculously obvious; a very bad cartoon character that you don't find he's evil enough.

This movie is like ride on a roller coaster, not even one moment dull or lax, from the very beginning to the final climax. Absolutely well done! A milestone and the highest standard that might not be easy to transcend in the coming years for movie production.

Highly recommended. So why still scored 9/10? Nothing is perfect, but this one is a near perfect one.

The good thing about a lot of Herman Yau's movies is good or bad, they don't drag. He understands action is his strength and he doesn't waste much time in character development or melodrama setup. And I believe for the most part the movie delivers on the.fast paced action. Andy Lau's character is much deeper than his usual HK action hero setup and surprisingly, I think he did a good job with it too. Sean Lau OTOH, has very little to work with for his character and when the movie ends you can barely remember much about his character other than it just keep the plot going.

But assuming most audience are in the theatre for the action I think a few of the bomb defusing scenes do keep you on the edge of your seats. Now there are things that make no sense logically in the movie (for starter, just because you jump into a swimming pool it doesn't mean you can survive a jump from 10 stories high), and the plot twists also makes no sense if you come to think of it - the police chiefs who you told the audience just 10 minutes ago are too chicken to take the risk and do the right things, all of a sudden buys into a super risky proposal which they have nothing to gain from. But just forget logic and fine, you can at least enjoy the twists and the action ... and the action scenes don't disappoint ...

... with the exception of 1 major problem : the subway train scenes (it is not a spoiler, you see that in the first min of the movie). That is, by far, the WORST CG I have seen in a movie since maybe the late 90's. What the heck was that? The movie seems to have overachieve with a limited budget and the result was pretty disastrous visually. I don't think that is acceptable even for a TV series in 2021, never mind a blockbuster movie. I tried to overlook but it was a pretty glaring letdown.

All in all, good action flick with a weak plot that makes little sense, a few misses here and there but it's still a solid 7/10 to me.

Director Herman Yau presented one heck of an outstanding production with excellent directing and cinematography. The writing had a few plot and technical issues, and for the most part was predictable. I feel some filler scenes could've been cut down or out to make the 120 min runtime closer to 100, based on the amount of substance in the storyline. The performances were all on point and convincing, and the fights scenes were perfectly choreographed. The V/SFX were actually quite impressive for the most part, with just a few sloppy CGI scenes. I found the score to be a little cheesy and overbearing, especially in the beginning. Otherwise, it was a fun thrill ride, worth seeing if you're into this type of action films. A well deserved 8/10 from me.

This film completely blew me away. Right from the start, I was captivated by the intensity of the story. It does not slow down at all, and keeps me entranced every second right until the end. I am quite amazed by the quality of the production of this film. The only thing I could complain about is that the female lead's Putonghua mouth movements does not match her spoken Cantonese words. Otherwise, I truly lived very second of this film!

I love it! You will not regret watching this movie. Just one thing, I do wish to see the alternate ending though, that scene will be bomb! Just imagine the CG effect, it may even be comparable to 2012.