War (2007)

War (2007)
Aka: Rogue; Rogue Assassin

 

Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham, John Lone, Devon Aoki, Kane Kosugi, Mark Cheng, Ryo Ishibashi
Director:  Phillip G. Atwell
Action Director: Corey Yuen

 

It’s something of a cliché to bash the American movies that Chinese stars like Jet Li and Jackie Chan have made, saying that they don’t hold a candle to their best Hong Kong work. For the most part, especially on Jackie Chan’s part, that’s a valid complaint. Ever since Jackie has come to Hollywood, his work has become increasingly FX-dependent and watered-down, replacing his trademark physical comedy with the more irreverent Hollywood type. While some of Jackie’s films have remained entertaining pieces, to say that a lot of them don’t match even his mediocre Hong Kong work  wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Jet Li is a something of a different case. He’s had a bit more luck in the films he’s made, if only for the fact that he was able to ally himself with the French, who, as much as I hate to say it, have a somewhat better vision of what to do with their Hong Kong talent than Hollywood does. Moreover, despite having a good comic presence, Jet Li is just as much of a serious martial arts actor as a comic one, which has given him a bit more variety in his movies than Chan, who was practically typecast in a series of buddy flicks. While this seriousness has often translated into some uninspired urban actioners, even his silliest films have remained somewhat entertaining on a pure action level than a lot of Jackie Chan’s Western movies.

In spite of its watered-down Matrix-inspired action, overstuffed plot, and overlong running time, I have a strange fascination for Romeo Must Die, in that I feel compelled to stop what I’m doing and watch it whenever it comes on TV. Kiss of the Dragon, despite a lot of unpleasantness within, boasts some of Jet Li’s best action since his superlative Fist of Legend and is proof that the man respects his fans. This is further seen in the silly Cradle 2 the Grave, in which Jet Li supposedly chose Mark Dacascos to be his onscreen opponent on account of a survey he did with his fans at his site. The result may not have been the best fight (due to the editor throwing in some other less interesting fights up in), but I can’t say that I didn’t have a blast watching it. He reached a peak that easily surpasses Jackie Chan’s best Western work with Danny the Dog, a film that features some great bone-crunching action and, better still, a chance for Jet Li to actually act.

Between these films and the awesome Fearless, which was to be his swan song to traditional martial arts cinema, Jet Li had accumulated quite a bit of good will on my part. Unfortunately, his next American film, which he supposedly did only because it was part of his contract, is almost enough to throw all that good will down the drain. It’s certainly one of his worst movies, ranking down there with the likes of his disappointing High Risk and overrated Swordsman II.

I’m so disgusted that I’m not even going to detail the plot. I’ll just include this summary taken from the movie’s official website:

After his partner is brutally murdered by the infamous assassin Rogue (Jet Li), FBI agent Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) vows to find the elusive killer and personally avenge his partner’s death. But Rogue proves untraceable until three years later when he resurfaces to ignite a bloody turf war between Chinese mob leader Chang (John Lone) and Japanese yakuza boss Shiro (Ryo Ishibashi). Eager to capture Rogue once and for all, Crawford leads his team of crime specialists headlong into the conflict. But Crawford’s thirst for vengeance jeopardizes his professional judgement, and as the violence escalates, Crawford finally comes face to face with his enemy…

The main problem with this film, which became a lot clearer after I watched it, is that this film is most Steven Seagal-ish of Jet Li’s films. I went on the IMDB to look up the director and writers’ respective filmographies, but the director is only an ex-music video director (yay!) and the writers haven’t done much of anything at all–they must be Seagal fans. The urban action setting reminds me of Steven Seagal. The whole violent gang war between Asian gangs is nothing new, but it reminds me a lot of Seagal’s recent films like Out for a Kill and Into the Sun. The fact that Jet plays his role (or is directed to play) like an invincible Steven Seagal clone doesn’t help things, either. This is further compounded by the presence of gratuitous exploitive elements, which have been commonplace in Seagal’s films since the beginning (ironically, both this film and Born to Defence , which I’m also reviewing this week, feature prostitutes getting naked in front of an otherwise uninterested Jet Li).

Probably worse than the Steven Seagal plot is the Steven Seagal style of action. This is especially unfortunate, considering that the action director was Corey Yuen, who was once one of Hong Kong’s top choreographers. His work has become increasingly uneven, especially in the advent of CGI-fu during the past decade. I don’t know if Corey Yuen was told by the director to make the fights similar to what you’d see in a Seagal film, but it’s all there: quick cuts, fights that finish before they start, and disappointing results for classic match-ups. The film has Jet Li employing quick and effective techniques to take out his opponents with as little effort as possible. It’s reminiscent of the Bourne movies (and you-know-who’s films), but it’s really out of place and a waste of Jet’s and Corey’s talents.

The wasted opportunities classic match-ups is especially depressing. The first disappointment comes when Jet Li fights Kane Kosugi. Kane Kosugi is the son of Sho Kosugi, the great ninja master from the 1980s, and is a great onscreen fighter and candidate for the next great superkicker (watch his performance in Blood Heat). Unfortunately, his fight with Jet lasts all of a minute and ends with Jet throwing a car wheel at him. Boring.

Faring slightly better, but still very disappointing, is Jet’s fight with Jason Statham. I think fans had been clamoring for a showdown between the two after Jason proved himself to be a fighting fury in the Transporter series, which was also choreographed by Corey Yuen. However, the director was an idiot and their big fight is about two minutes long and consists of generic kickboxing with a bit of object weaponry (like a sledge hammer) thrown in. Surely, it isn’t the balls-to-the-wall fight that we fans were hoping for. Like I said before, the filmmakers’ inability to create classic match-ups out of fights between proven screen fighters is just another piece of evidence that Rogue Assassin suffers from Steven Seagal-syndrome (for the record, Seagal has wasted classic match-up opportunities with Michael Jai White, Ken Low, Gary Daniels, and probably some other people as well).

The only real satisfying action sequence is a brutal fight between Jason Statham and some Japanese Yakuza at a restaurant. It’s incredibly bloody, but it’s the sort of axe-wielding, bone-breaking mayhem that we fans were hoping to see in spades in this film. The other fights include Jet Li briefly beating up a Chinese triad, Jet Li briefly decapitating some ninja, and a…uh…well…brief  sword fight between Jet Li and Ryo Ishibashi (The Grudge), which is probably the second best fight in the film, although that really isn’t saying much.

There are a number of other wasted opportunities. The film establishes Devon Aoki (DOA: Dead or Alive), who plays Shiro’s daughter, as a knife-wielding bad girl, even to the point where she’s able to force some Yakuza lowlives to make her salad at knifepoint. Where does this go? Nowhere, I tell you! Why even bother showing us that she can hack a person to threads if she wants and then NOT have her fight against Jason Statham or Jet Li during the film? Oh, and let me submit here that Ms. Aoki is humanly unable of making more than one facial expression.

Before I finish this review, let me just moan and complain a little about this film’s rating. Here in Brazil, it received the rating of “14 years” for “Scenes of Violence.” Yeah, uh-huh. The film is as brutally violent as Kiss of the Dragon, plus it has more sex and nudity, and that film got a “16 years” rating. Heck, Romeo Must Die got a 16 rating and it wasn’t even half as violent and exploitive as this film. Bottom line: Film ratings over here are apparently carried out by Rhesus monkeys.

SPOILER ALERT!!! The only saving grace of this film is the final twist. While a bit hard to believe, it’s still pretty neat and easily the most interesting thing in the film. But is it really possible for a regular cop to train himself to be the ultimate assassin and a sword-wielding, gun-firing, butt-kicking master of destruction in just three years?

This is probably the worst Jet Li film on record and the one I had the hardest time getting through. To all you American filmmakers: When you make a Jet Li movie, make a JET LI movie, and a Steven Seagal movie with Jet Li in it. Thank you.