1991's 'Tiger claws' was, much to my delight, a whole lot of fun, balancing ham-handedness with earnest, careful construction to serve up satisfying entertainment. 1996's 'Tiger claws II' was regrettably no fun at all, for at the same time that it tried to adopt a more serious tone it also languished under a meandering pace, deemphasized action, and declined the deliberate gaucheness that worked to make its predecessor such a blast. One might hope that filmmaker J. Stephen Maunder, who wrote the first title and progressed to also directing the sequel, learned from their mistakes to make 'Tiger claws III: The final conflict' at least more balanced, but that's just not the case. Sadly, this struggles just as much as its immediate antecedent to produce any value - and in fact, there's even less here.
Bolo Yeung is missed after he graced the first two films with his presence, though at least in his stead we now have Carter Wong. Wong's attachment is almost one of name only, however, for while consistently present, he is nonetheless given a supporting role that mostly only puts him on a pedestal as though to say, "look who's here!" Cynthia Rothrock, meanwhile, is billed second only to Jalal Merhi - yet while she was sadly only second fiddle in 1991, and saw character Linda Masterston rather reduced to a bit part in 1996, she's barely involved at all in 2000. But maybe that makes her the smartest person here; I can only assume it was a contractual obligation or favor to her fellows that drew her in, and she seems to have ducked out as quickly as she could. At least Merhi is more prominent here than he was in 'Tiger claws II'; take that as you will.
The music of composer Varouje was one of the definite strengths of the first film, and gratifyingly sincere at that as the synth-driven score lent to a measure of atmosphere. Returning for 'II,' Varouje gave his music a more industrial edge - but also didn't seem to spend much time actually writing, as much of what we heard in the first sequel was distinctly repetitive and overused. Bringing their talents to 'III,' Varouje rather seems to be phoning it in. We get overt "traditional Chinese" music cues, tinges of glitch and IDM circa 2000, a little bit of guitar, slivers of spaced-out synthesizer, and... Oh I'm sorry, I'm bored now. Moving on.
Doubling as both writer and director this time around, Maunder mostly seems to have given up as they helm this production, for there's scarcely one iota of authenticity or earnestness about 'Tiger claws III.' Most aspects herein could best be described as perfunctory - serving their purpose, I suppose, but mostly unconvincingly and halfheartedly. Camerawork, editing, direction (building shots and scenes, guiding the cast), acting, humor (mostly boorish one-liners, almost no cleverness), action scenes, special effects, dialogue, characters, scene writing, plot development, and the overall narrative all fail to capture the imagination, and I rather wonder what the point of any of it was. Rounding details like hair, makeup, and costume design are unremarkable, and filming locations and set design and decoration were apparently given the lowest priority of the budget. The most well put-together scenes may well be those in which Tarek trains at the cabin, but one would be forgiven for thinking that Maunder was pointedly trying to draw upon viewer recollections of 'Rocky IV' in the process. The writing depends on a lot of action-thriller tropes to provide filler. Martial arts are played down even more here than in the 1996 feature, and cursory as all elements are - including the acting - nothing is more completely, astoundingly bland and uninspiring than those scenes that needlessly focus on protagonist Tarek's coworkers.
There are scraps of serviceable ideas here. I suppose one could reasonably argue that 'The final conflict' has no real intention but low-grade entertainment as it finishes the saga begun 9 years prior, and those involved worked to bring it to fruition with what they had. I try to find the worth in everything I watch, no matter how deficient a given title may be. Here, unfortunately, the shortcomings so heavily outweigh and dampen any advantages that there's very little enjoyment to be had. I admit I had low expectations in the first place, but I really did try to give this picture a chance. Fair enough, there are certainly worse films one could stumble upon to watch. The fact remains - when all is said and done, even if you're a die-hard fan of someone in the cast, there's just no compelling reason to check out 'Tiger claws III.'
Oh well.
