Warriors of future

A for effort? Unfortunately effort doesn't do much in this day and age. The all-star veteran cast plays a set of extremely stereotypical characters that are easily forgotten. The dialogues are bland, the action scenes are unmemorable, and there seems to be very few logic behind the settings. The inclusion of the little girl is so painfully stereotypical of such Cantonese films that you feel like you are transported back to the 80s. If this movie is supposed to be Louis Koo's love letter to sci-fi films, its a commendable job as it offers so little in terms of modern sci-fi. And if this movie is supposed to represent Hong Kong's movie industry in the new age, that would be pretty tragic.

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.

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.

It's ok, it had some good moments, some boring moments; there are some scenes I just did not understand at all for one reason or the other as they made no sense. Without giving any spoilers, I'll leave it up to you, but it just made no common sense for some to be...where no kids should be.. All 3 female actresses were not very good and may be it wasn't their fault but the fault of the directors and the bad script The story is very cheesey. I don't believe actors were right for this one, it just felt a bit amateurish and cheesy.

Script had a lot of holes.

I get it, it's a Sci-fi, but it should also make at least some basic common sense, and a lot of things did not throughout the whole movie.

5.2/10. Anyone giving it more than a 6 is probably involved in the movie... There are a lot better movies from China and this is not one of them.

Overall production is great, the story makes relative sense, the characters have some depth to them, the CGI is outstanding. I personally love the overall aesthetic of the movie. Cool suits, freaky aliens, everything an FPS gamer could ever dream of. The biggest problem for me is the pacing is just too fast. I can't appreciate the beautiful scenes long enough, the action sequences are great but it's also ruined by the constant changes of the camera angle which then becomes unwatchable. I was so hyped for this movie, but sadly it's a disappointment that could've been easily fixed with a better director.