Warriors of Future (2022)

Warriors of Future (2022)
Chinese Title: 明日戰記
Translation: Tomorrow’s War

 

Starring: Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Lau Ching-Wan, Carina Lau Ka-Ling, Philip Keung Hiu-Man, Tse Kwan-Ho, Wu Qian, Wan Guopeng, Nick Cheung Ka-Fai
Director: Ng Yuen-Fai
Action Director: Jack Wong
SPFX Directors: Chas Chau Chi-Shing, Leung Wai-Kit, Kwok Tai

 

Warriors of Future is basically a Hollywood action-science fiction blockbuster...that happens to be made in Hong Kong with a Chinese cast and crew. However, the storytelling is a mixture of elements of Other movies, ranging from Bat 21 to Aliens to Highlander 2, not to mention our heroes running in powerful robo exoskeletons like Starship Troopers—the novel and the third film. Despite featuring a Hong Kong action diretor—Jack Wong—in the credits, the action is more Hollywood, with ever single set piece being treated like a clímax to a normal movie. That is very much a Michael Bay or Steven Sommers way to approach a film.

The backstory goes as follows: at some point in the near future, humanity perfected the art of Building robots, which means that wars became more commonplace because you obviously didn’t have to worry too much about sending conscripts to die by the thousands. As the number of wars grew, the waste of natural resources plus whatever the hundreds of thousands of explosions was doing the atmosphere, compounded with humanity’s normal polluting ways, threatened to suffocate humanity into extinction.

That’s where we came up with Skynet, a system of dome-like structures that protected the lower atmosphere from pollution, so that people could go on living without choking themselves out of existence. Some time after Skynet was built, a meteor struck Hong Kong—or some unnamed Chinese metropolis—landing specifically in Sector B.16. The meteor was carrying an alien form of plant life, later christened “Pandora”, that grew like the dickens whenever exposed to water. While a ginormous system of alien vines could be a real hassle when it’s knocking over buildings every time it rains, there is a silver lining: Pandora is capable of absorbing pollutants and converting them into regular hydrogen.

The film tells the story of a team of Air Corps soldiers who are given a mission: Discover the location of Pandora’s pistil so that a pair of robot tanks can fire a “gene bullet” into it. What is a gene bullet, mind you? It’s a chemical that will alter the genetic structure of Pandora so that it stops growing whenever exposed to H₂O, but without losing its pollution consumption abilities. The soldiers, led by Taylor (Louis Koo, of almost every single HK film made in the past 10 years) and Johnson Cheng (Lau Ching-Wan, of Black Mask and Call of Heroes), have a tight deadline to work on. In a few hours, a storm front will reach the city, dumping enough precipitation to make Pandora expand past B.16 into the neighboring sector, endangering the lives of more than five million people. Oh, and if the gene bullet doesn’t work, there is Plan B: detonate a thermonuclear weapon inside B.16, which will not only kill Pandora, but everybody living dear the quarantine zone—this is a secret mission, so no chance for evacuation.

And so it goes, with FX man-turned-director Ng Yuen-Fai treating the story the same way Michael Bay might do. There are five major set pieces, which take up the bulk of the film’s rather scant 100-minute running time. The first one sets the story in motion, as the Air Corps fire a chemical contrast into Pandora and follow its progress through the vines in order to find the pistil. The sequence has the aircraft flying between buildings and trying to avoid deadly giant vines as they follow a change in coloring of the vines. The scene ends with the mission being compromised thanks to treachery from a major supporting character and Taylor being left on his own with an unexperienced communications officer named Connor (Wan Guopeng).

The action moves to a hospital, where Taylor and Connor try to help an injured comrade, only to discover that the building is infested with man-sized, quadrupedal lizard-roaches. This is where the movie goes all Aliens on us, complete with a little girl (Mortal Ouija’s Cheng Xiaoxa) who had been living in hiding for who-knows-how-long. That’s followed by another death-defying visit to a collapsing building…and let’s not forget the robot soldiers, which are in control of the traitor. Okay, since the film doesn’t make any attempt to hide his identity, I’ll just tell you that it’s Major-General Sean Li, played by Nick Cheung in a bland, one-note performance. There, I said it.

Because the bulk of the film consists of over-the-top, FX-laden action sequences, don’t expect much in terms of character development or deep thought about the environment or the ethics of blowing up a nuclear weapon in the middle of an urban sprawl. This movie doesn’t even pay lip service to the logistics of nuclear warfare…at least Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day talks about radioactive fallout during a drunken rant. The characters here estimate 160,000 deaths in the initial blast radius, but completely ignore stuff like the shock wave created by the explosion or, of course, the resulting fallout.

Lau Ching-Wan and Louis Koo play veteran soldiers with differing temperaments. The latter lost his daughter to cancer, so he is a perpetual “sourpuss,” to quote Johnson Cheng. He does get a shot at redemption in the form of Pansy, the girl in the hospital, not too unlike Ripley getting a second shot at motherhood in Aliens. Lau is a bit more laid back, but he still gets in on the action when push comes to shove and swings a mean hatchet. Connor, the ineffectual communications guy, slowly develops courage as the film progresses. There is also a former soldier named Skunk (prolific character actor Phillip Keung, of Dynasty Warriors and a lot of Category III films) who helps our heroes, too. Carina Lau is also along for the ride, looking younger here than she did ten years ago in Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

The action is mainly of the shooting-and-explosions variety, although there are a few brief moments of punching and kicking and knife-fighting when our heroes are attacked by the re-programmed robot soldiers in the second half. Don’t expect much vintage HK-flavored action, though. This is a Jade Screen-equivalent to an action opus that you’d get from the likes of Jonathan Liebesman.  That said, I have to applaud the special effects: I’m not sure how well they looked on the big screen, but on Netflix, they were generally consistent and bereft of the usually-embarrassing attempts at CGI fire and explosions that hinder most contemporary Chinese movies. The robots, insect monsters, explosions and over-the-top car stunts all look quite good, even by Hollywood standards. I never felt myself being yanked out of the movie because of the action and effects, although Nick Cheung’s bored performance threatened to do on a couple of occasions (give me his Connected cop character anytime).

If you enjoy a turn-off-your-brain Hollywood blockbuster from time to time, like your Oblivion’s; your Skyline’s; or your Battle Los Angeles’s, than check out Warriors of Future. It’s a reasonably fun little movie.