War (2007) - Movie Review
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After his partner is brutally murdered by the mysterious assassin known as Rogue (Li), an FBI agent (Statham) goes on a quest for vengeance. What follows is various attempts by Statham to kill Li, and Li battling his own inner demons as he deals with his sinister business partners. You don't need to know much more to the plot than that, but there are a few mild twists and other developments that occur to make the film a bit more interesting than your average action fare. All in all, though, we've seen this plot before in some incarnation or another, though it does a decent job of providing some entertaining moments nonetheless.
It's fun seeing Li back in the villain role as we really haven't seen him "nasty" since he kicked ass in Lethal Weapon 4, but with everyone anticipating the match up of Jackie Chan and Jet Li in 2008, Statham vs. Li isn't exactly a Celebrity Death Match that's going to sell a lot of tickets. The boring and nondescript title doesn't help, either, but then again, this review isn't about the marketing.
So... what's there to say? I watched War about a week or so ago and I really don't remember much about it. I think one of the main characters dies at the end (will good prevail, or not?), which was a bit of a surprise, and I remember lots of action sequences, but everything blended together. It's funny - when I was younger, I used to think that all you needed to make a good action film was to have a lot of non-stop action. War has that for the most part, but there aren't any memorable action scenes, and without memorable scenes, the film is doomed to the discount bin.
I'll have to re-watch this movie at some point as I honestly must have zoned out through a good chunk of it. Nothing sank in deep, and War failed to bite down. Still, for those of you who kill for kung fu action, War may offer up enough goodies to satisfy you for a short while.
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Anonymous says:
September 5, 2007The movie is great, if you are reading this, you must want the ending spoiled for you. If you dont want the ending spoiled, scroll back up. The movie had its ups and downs. Jet Li had a great "hype" coming back after the movie 'Fearless'. To many who have seen his first US debut in the movie 'Lethal Weapon 4', they thought that Fearless would be the last movie he would make in the US, but on the contrary, to Jet Li fans as myself, they have known that Jet Li has made many movies depicting him as a traditional chinese-martial artist with the front of his head shaved and a fully grown queue. Those are the movies that will END. Seems to me as if he's sticking to present day movies. This movie, like the other US movies he has made was more story and less butt-kicking (i.e. Kiss of the Dragon, Cradle 2 the Grave, and Unleashed). When I say "less butt-kicking" I mean maybe 2-3 fight scenes. To kill a man with a needle, to be depicted as a dog, and to have a quick fight scene ending that constantly switches over loses all the excitement.
Jason Statham from the Transporter 1 & 2 shows he's capable of parkour and martial arts did not excite me as he faced up against Jet Li. Both great martial artists, choreographed or not, they can put on a show but it lacked that in this movie.
If you like suspense and movies to make you try and figure out the ending before it ends, then this is for you. If you like Jet Li's martial arts, then you'll only see but a taste of it if this is the first of his movies you will see.
Statham's partner, Tom Lone and his family was "assassinated" by a man named Rogue in a cabin in the woods who works for the Yakuza. Years go by and Statham is trying to find Rogue. Why? The person watching the movie is led to believe that Statham is looking for Rogue because he killed his partner. You find out later that in the movie that Rogue was killed by Tom Lone and changed his appearance to look EXACTLY like Rogue in order to get to the Yakuza leader and kill him for murdering his family. Statham on the other hand has been working for the Yakuza leader and is the one who tipped them off so that Rogue would assassinate Tom Lone. Statham wanted the wife and child alive, and that was his reason to find and kill the Yakuza leader. Towards the end Tom Lone posed as Rogue meets with the Yakuza leader and finds out that Statham was the one that tipped them off. His target changes to Statham, and before Statham dies, he begs for forgiveness and dies by the hands of his old partner Tom (Rogue). 15 second fight then gunshots. The End!
Anonymous says:
June 6, 2007I like the two characters facing off - really sets up the tension for the movie.
Anonymous says:
June 6, 2007i like how the poster look s great both horizontally and vertically - cool idea!