Chek dou

First things first: The surface aspects of Helios are outrageously good. The production value rivals Hollywood films with convincing large scale sets, international location shooting, subtle photo-real CGI, gorgeous cinematography, and rip-roaring action scenes. Speaking of action scenes, Helios' gun battles are firmly in the new wave of Hong Kong gun play: Hard-hitting machine gun battles with a dash of real-world tactical flare. They resemble more the thrilling shootout in Michael Mann's Heat rather than John Woo's elegant work. This action style works well for thrillers and HK cinema have gotten damn good at it in recent years.

Sadly, Helios' plotting and narrative are also notably Hollywood- esque with shallow characters, contrived emotions, and ludicrous plot all held together by tightly paced editing and actors that demand you look at them due to their great acting or great looks. It all still manages to be compelling, but none of it holds up on reflection. Despite its flaws, Helios could normally be recommended as a fun "turn off your brain" action thriller and that would be that. Alas, the ending makes the recommendation much harder. Without going into specifics, just know that there is no satisfaction to be had in any way. No closure, no justice, no explanation. Viewers will have to decide for themselves if it's worth watching a movie that entertains mightily then reverses all of that good will in the last 10 minutes.

Well made with good production values and a stellar cast from all over SE Asia. One or two action scenes worth watching but the rest of the movie is almost like a Tourist guide to HK and Macau. The plotline is shambolic - at one point some very valid political points are made about HK (movie was made in 2015) almost predicting the future. Ending is even worse. All eye candy - don't waste your time unless you are looking for a travelogue about HK.

Yes the movie and its "story" is all over the place - but the action this delivers (sporadically but sufficient) makes up for that. You may also feel that the ending is a letdown, but hopefully this all will not take away the fun you can have with this. And I use fun lightly here, since this is a serious matter we are talking about (terrorism and all that).

It could have been shorter and I'm not sure if there will be a sequel in the future. Maybe that would change the view for some, maybe if there wouldn't be one it would change their view on this also. For now we can only judge what we have in front of us and it's a decent effort in the thriller/terror genre

Typical boring action movie... All actors look similar. No one can recognize who is who.

I went to see Helios with no preconceived idea of the critics response and fearing the worse but I was pleasantly surprised and had a good thrill thanks to a few decent action scenes and I felt entertained throughout, which I cannot say about Cold War, one of the film makers previous effort. The cast was good and I loved the way each country was presenting itself in a very good light but different from one another. Modern movie clichés if you like...Anyway,it had the style one associates with the directors but again, unlike Cold War, it actually looked like HK and made it an OTT version of the city which suited the movie ambitious concept(some may say pretentious). At times walking the fine line between slick and cheesy, it got me involved and I will go and see the sequel.

A good actioner with enough pizzaz to satisfy fans of Asian commercial movies.