The Rescue

While I won't call this a great movie, there are some fun to be found in it. The story is good with it being personal and professional lives of members from the China Rescue & Salvage. We see their daily life with their love ones and how these operations effect them. The movie contain too many plotline with the rescue mission, the romance between the main character and the new female worker, and his sone having a brain tumor. It feel like they try to added in things into the movie and it somewhat works. I do think the characters are build up pretty well and give them backstory to them. The action scenes are entertaining with their jobs on rescuing people from disaster and the risk they take to complete it. But I found the romance part to be not that interesting and is predictable on where it goes with it. And even the son with a tumor is obvious on what going to happened to him. The movie also contains some comedy bits which isn't that funny at all. But it does have a good climax to it.

The Rescue is a decent action movie that is enjoyable, but needs to be trimmed down.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Dante Lam's films 'Operation Mekong' and 'Operation Red Sea', 'The Rescue' was highly anticipated. Sadly, it wasn't as satisfying as the previous films (yet by no means bad either!).

Fair enough, this is a well made film with lots of action and nail-biting, thrilling moments. Unfortunately the director relied too much on CGI for this film, where he used a lot of practical effects for his previous films. The visual effects are not bad, but certainly not the greatest. The visual effects in the 2019 Chinese film 'The Bravest' - also dealing with fire - were far better.

The character that most appealed to me was Gao Qian (Eddie Peng). They told us everything about him - from his back story to his ambitions and outlook on life, to his current dilemma and trauma, and regret. I really cared about this character and rooted for him every step of the way. I also cared about his son, Cong Cong. Why they always insist on adding a love interest is beyond me, and quite honestly sometimes gets in the way of the action. The love interest in 'The Rescue' is cliched and too predictable - in typical Hollywood style...

The film gives us a great insight into the dangerous operations of rescue personnel, and the grueling preparations and exercise they go through to save lives. I enjoyed that aspect of the film. 'The Rescue' can be divided into chapters. Chapter One is the oil rig rescue operation, Chapter Two is the truck rescue operation, Chapter Three is the plane rescue operation (this scene by the way was incredibly well done!), and Chapter Four was the oil vessel rescue operation. The rig and the oil vessel scenes were very similar, though, and gave me a sense of deja vu. Crammed into all of this is our hero's son developing a cancerous brain tumor, and then there's still room for the love story. As a result the film feels too long, with the viewer (or me at least) almost losing interest during the finale, which was too similar to the opening scene, and - honestly - the rig scene was more impressive.

I love Asian disaster movies and even though 'The Rescue' wasn't as good as many of the other offerings as of late, it was still enjoyable.

1. Just watch it as cartoon, something Disney or Dwayne Johnson, it is enough to be an entertainment after dinner. 2. There are many very comfortable sights and CloseShots, not like 'Operation Red Sea' such jumpy one, or 'Deepwater Horizon' dark shaking and confusing. though mostly fake, but why nobody blames '2012' or 'the day after tomorrow' fake? --------- 3. For a chinese mainland movie, it is so hard to see so many GOOD people injured or die, at least it attempts to be reasonable. 4. Mainland movie again, an OFFICIAL protagonist, no more invincible or almighty, it is downgraded to a mortal hero, not good enough but better.

Well, dont treat this movie like something ambitious, you'll have fun.

Seeing reviews giving this movie a 6 or lower is sad. I feel it's a 7 minimum, and a lower score would be a disservice to everyone that worked in it and the amount of effort put into crafting the end result. Is it because it's a "state-sanctioned" movie? Because China wanted to make the people that rescue others for a living in their country look good?

Anyway.. It is visually impressive (stunts, action, locations, camera-work, etc.). It's a very technical movie, and it teaches you a bit about the REAL world of rescue teams that are ignored by many (the discipline, preparation, actions, you name it). It's tense, well acted (the lead portrays a character that would make you respect anyone), sound editing is great (music choices, or lack of sound at certain times) and editing in general. It is perfectly crafted to be an immersive movie. I'm not used to movie-structures that aren't particularly conventional.. but these are the kind I enjoy the most, the ones I don't know what to expect.

Still, it is a bit charged with drama, but it's tasteful and doesn't undermine the plot. CGI is noticeable at some points (never ugly), but on the other hand, it helps in most scenes.

Personally, I really enjoyed it. At times, I forgot I was watching a movie, which is more than I can ask for.

If you are interested, give it a shot and don't be deterred by the low score and other reviews!! Expect realism and humanity, but more importantly, don't forget it was written by someone with an objective in mind.

Dante Lam is imo one of the top five action directors in the world. In this film, he is perfection. It will blow your mind how he creates these explosive scenes as if you were right there, flinching amidst the action. That final rescue scene, visually, has to be the best I have ever seen. I feel slow-mo shots are for amateurs and so 1980's, but here they worked impeccably, and made that final rescue scene, one I will forever have etched in my mind. Simply perfection, stunning and explosive. Wow, Lam nailed it, and the entire rest of this film.

Then add the insanely amazing cinematography, stunning special and visual effects, and this is better than most A-list big budget Hollywood blockbusters. Everything from the training and rescues, makes firefighter training seem like a walk in the park. Casting was excellent, and the score and soundtrack top notch.

My only issue was the excessive melodramatics and the "parent and child" subplot. I didn't mind the romance part, but even with the excellent pacing, the 139 min runtime would have been more enjoyable, and less of an unnecessary emotional roller-coaster, without that subplot, and thus shaved at least 20-30 minutes, leaving us with more action than we can handle. The witty and sharp humor was good, but cheesy in this type of film, especially when it came from kids. I guess this is what happens when you have 3 writers collaborating - Wrong Size Man... errrm, darn auto-correct... I meant Wong Sze Man, Tan Yuli and Yaqing Zhi.

Nevertheless, today I learned to respect the search and rescue teams, who have been trained better than Navy Seals (obviously minus the combat training), and thoroughly enjoyed this gem by Lam. It's a well deserved 9/10 from me.