Blade of Kings

 

Blade of Kings

 

 Summary

Blade Kings is arguably the worst movie I've seen Donnie Yen attached to and despite a few fun moments, it's pretty awesome and I can't find much to recommend it

In the legendary Land of Huadu, the coal Cape, a humble boy born to rule an empire must make his journey to claim his throne. It is an epic action adventure that combines romance, fantasy, comedy and sophisticated martial art in Hong Kong

Review: you thought that a movie with Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan in the cast list would be something really special-and you'd be wrong, if this movie is anything to go by

I am a big fan of both actors who are unfortunately only in a few scenes. Chan is literally a cameo and his fight scene with Yen is arguably the only redeeming feature of the film

Donnie Yen spends most of his scenes watching from a distance while others do things and is completely lost in the role

Normally, I am very lenient with reviews and I try to be as generous as possible because I understand how difficult it is to make a movie but this movie wastes what could have been an interesting premise with annoying characters and a complete lack of humor. I think it's supposed to be funny but the only humor was how it's so bad

SGI has its place but it is never in a martial arts movie and it looks especially terrible in this

Jesse Chan (Jackie's son) is a lead, oddly named Coal head and is the dead ringer for his father. It's unclear if he has the same fighting skills as Jackie but we couldn't see them in this movie. Anytime there is a fighting scene, some awful CGI comes on the screen and distracts you from anything else

Charlene Choi's character 13 Master is really annoying and I found that I wasn't rooting for anyone; I thought just let the evil queen erase this race of annoying and weird characters and I would go watch the IP guy again instead

Recovering qualities? The story is kind of an interesting idea but poorly implemented and feels like a missed opportunity. The score also has a theme tune that runs through your head for weeks after watching it. As I said, the fight scene between Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan is also decent

She is also very colorful with some nice fashion design and Donnie Yen's presence elevates her

Overall, Blade Kings is arguably the worst movie I've seen Donnie Yen attached to and despite a few fun moments, it's pretty awesome and I can't find much to recommend it

Is the original title of Blade of Kings is the Twins effect II-it's a sequel, but it has nothing to do with the 2003 twins effect other than it features stars Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung. The pair are famous for being Hong Kong tween pop sensation Cantopop. Think of an Asian, Jedward female, only with better hair. That's really all you need to know. Oh,and the movie also has Jackie Chan in a cameo

Cantopop chicks may be a sensation in China, but they mean Bo Diddley on these shores, and that means the blade of Kings has to stand on its feet (well, maybe four feet) if it wants to succeed. It didn't happen

Set in an ancient maternal world, Blade follows the Kings-Well, okay. Look-it's a boring "quest movie", with bright colors, a shaky plot, and CGI increased fighting scenes. It's pretty awesome. It may have been a hit in China, but it plays like substandard episodes of monkey and mighty morphine Power Rangers sliced together, with the magic removed

For sadists, viewers with the addition of Jackie Chan are just fans. If you are all three then you have hit the jackpot

The USA has recently made a bunch of second-rate acquisitions for release on home video in the United States. The first of this new wave of releases was Donnie Yen's Flashpoint, which eluded me, but this second release marks the international Blu-ray debut of twins effect II, here renamed blade of Kings for the North American market. Surprisingly, this movie does not have a Hong Kong Blu-ray, which means that Well-Go began to branch out to older titles, which can be pretty terrible, given the high standards typical for their discs. Blade of Kings is a very hard drive, however, I'm not quite sure that the movie holds up

Twins effect II was a period work piece that was filmed largely as a promotional vehicle for the Hong Kong pop group twins. The twins were a hot pair of Pop idols in the early 2000s before their reputation went into free fall after the great Edison Chen disaster of 2008. The bulk of the film focuses on the Twins, also known as Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi, however, to sweeten the pot, the producers brought in Daniel Wu, Jesse Chan, Edison Chen, and Fan Bingbing to attract some viewers who might have been wary of the Twins acting talent. As if this were not enough, we also get very brief, but memorable, appearances of Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan (most likely trying to promote his son's film) in a fight sequence

Given all the facts, the blade of Kings looks like a recipe for failure. A ready-made action movie starring two cute singers does not exactly inspire confidence. I'm actually of two minds about the movie. There is no denying that the blade of Kings is a minor piece of work. There is no meat on these bones, the plot is very flimsy, and the acting is only acceptable. However, on the other hand we have a kaleidoscope of things, which is actually quite decent, if you are willing to overlook some usually goofy looking CG, this was 2004 in Hong Kong after all

As much as I found myself caring about the characters in Blade of Kings, I found myself rooting for them to get themselves into more trouble. The sequence of work is not half bad, and some of the evasive CG at least shows a bit of creativity, if not efficiency. There are enough fight scenes in the movie to forgive some less than stellar performances, which actually managed to hook me up to the end without much pain. One thing you can't say about Blade Kings is that they didn't at least try to impress them

All that being said, a lot of my enjoyment derived almost directly from viewing these Blu-ray applications from well go. If you have watched this on some crappy Tai Seng DVD, I can pretty much guarantee you that this review will not be anywhere near positive. Both directors Patrick Leung and Corey Yuen used their skills to make this film as flashy and candy-colored as it should be to counteract the shortcomings of the plot. The movie looks great, the sound is also impressive, but I'll save that for later

Blade Kings is an agreeable small period martial arts movie. This won't be something I'm going to show Niobe, but for the old hand there is some nostalgic satisfaction. A lot of humorous elements in the film took me to the early '90s features of Hong Kong, and it had a warm, mysterious feeling. Check it out if you like this kind of thing, but if you choose to watch it, definitely spring for this Blu-ray app, it's pretty cool

This is Blade Kings ' Blu-ray debut and the thing looks surprisingly good. The transfer looks very acceptable and it doesn't seem to be a bullish conversion as far as I can tell, which is the Curse of the Hong Kong Blu-ray market. The most impressive part of the disc is the explosive color palette. This disc is bursting with color, sometimes to a ridiculous degree, but it helps to sell the work, and I found it to be very pleasing. There are some strange fluctuations in brightness levels from scene to scene, but probably not enough to annoy anyone but the most picky viewers. The audio track is equally impressive, it does a great job of moving the movement around the sound field. Overall, much better than I expected, a commendable job

There is not much here to talk about in terms of additions.  A brief behind-the-scenes vittoret gives a twinned look at the making of the film, which is mercifully brief. Also included is the music video of the Twins musical theme of the film