Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Light-hearted fun, 19 Nov 2006
Don't expect this movie to be a macho shoot-fest or as over the top as for example, a John Woo production. This is light-hearted comic book fun that the family can enjoy. I fail to see why the movie is rated as a 15 as that puts it (unfairly) in the same category as movies like Cube, The Terminator and Resident Evil where the violence is extreme and shocking. I have those movies and Silver Hawk is nothing like them. The movie, set in the near future, has a rather fresh feel to it and is superbly photographed showing off the beauty and splendour of its various locations to the full. Although the plot-line is straight forward enough I did get confused the first time I watched it by the slightly disjointed scene changes. This gave me the impression the director wanted to tell the story as quickly as possible! Maybe sharper direction and more sympathetic editing would've helped here.
Michelle Yeoh as heiress Lulu Wong aka Silver Hawk, crime fighter, is clearly incredibly fit for this role, and as always it shows. Doing all of her own stunts in true super hero style. Super heroes of this type seem to be a rarity in Asia and this made a refreshing change from the usual offerings of ancient battles, vengeful grimacing monks and whirling swords. Silver Hawk jumping the Great Wall of China on a motorbike during a chase to save a kidnapped panda cub is something you don't see in every film! Credit must also go to the supporting actors. Richie Jen as the self-assured police superintendent-to-be, Rich Man, is arriving in Polaris City to catch the Silver Hawk. He raises some chuckles but some of his credibility was ruined by bad lip-synch. Luke Goss as Alexander Wolfe is a refreshing change from the archetypal super criminal, he being ultimately cool (to the hilt) and totally unflappable. I had only previously seen him in Blade II and I think he is much underrated and deserves short-listing for future projects. His top two henchmen; Morris and Jane played by Michael Jai White and Li Bing Bing (or Bingbing Li as she's credited in other movies) were the perfect fighting duo who kept our heroine on her toes with their ballet like style; petit Jane at times being used like a weapon as giant Morris whirls her around, launching her at their opponents! Michael Jai White is like a bear, a hunky urban warrior and incredibly fast for his build. Li Bing Bing has bob cut hair, which is blue in the first half of the film, and she wears leather hot pants and fishnet tights which give her a pleasing cyber punk look (or maybe that's just me!). It does however make a welcome change from the monotonous white judo suits you see in other movies of this genre. In the third chapter, posing as a damsel in distress to catch Silver Hawk, Rich Man was wearing a skirt which certainly gave him more high-kicking, and quite comical, freedom during his fight with Silver Hawk. Enough about men in skirts! I would like to see the Jane and Morris characters return in a sequel. Yes, let's have a sequel please. Movie making (and its critics) can be far too serious at times.
Being primarily a listener as well as a viewer I must make special mention of the music that plays during the (cute) panda scene, flash-back sequences and the end credits. It's a clever mix of ancient and modern instruments, the lead instrument sounds like a koto (the credits list Pipa and Guzhen soloists) backed with floaty orchestration, synth bass line and a dreamy sounding female chorus that harmonise beautifully and sets the entire instrumental piece. Pity it's not available to buy, though normal stereo would not do it justice. Listen to the music in these scenes in DTS 5.1, fantastic. Even the score throughout the film is well composed, with riffs that sound oddly familiar.
I think most people will enjoy this film for more than one viewing and it is well worth the asking price (currently less than £6), but with Amazon you can always rent first!
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good, 21 Dec 2005
It's very enjoyable. It has a very unusual (but good) sense of humour. The story is fun and the fight scenes are very good too. There is great chemistry between the Yeoh and Jen.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not so good, 27 Mar 2006
I'm a fan of Asian cinema of all varieties, but unfortunately this particular one was really quite poor. It's got that bad, unnecessary dubbing you sometimes get in Asian films where English is spoken over the actors' own speech, which itself looks kindof like it was in English to start with. Regardless, they should either let the actors speak English if they can, or just use subtitles if not, not something in between.My own gripes about subtitling aside, the other aspects of the film was pretty average at best. Fight scenes were mixed, but generally not up to par. A lot of needless jumping around and other nonsense which, in most films, would be both comical and welcome, in this just seemed pointless. The story and characters were all the sort of thing you're sure to have seen before. Again, not always a bad thing if it's done well but in this case it was really nothing to write home about. The main charcter (Michelle Yeoh, in the Silver Hawk guise of the title) smiled constantly at times. Something that reminded me a lot of Andy Lau's character in Fulltime Killer, although sadly this film has nowhere near as many redeeming features. Michelle Yeoh's performance isn't bad all the same, but could be better, and the film itself could be a lot better. A shame then, since she's so good in other films, as are those films themselves.
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