This was originally supposed to be a live action adaption of the video game "Tekken". What sense does it make to attempt to recreate the most realistic and technically accurate fighting video game (yeah, yeah, I know "Soul Calibur" is up there too) by abusing lines, CGI and trick photography?!? Why would you gather a cast with such promise to short-change us with minimal actual martial arts? These methods are all utilities of corporate bastardization. This is why the book is always better. Or the comic. In this case the video game. When will movie executives learn not to attempt to fix things that function at top levels without their interference? No one really adapts anything. They twist, distort, then recreate. This was also the case with the movie "I Am Legend", which is based on my favorite book of the same title. Nothing was the same except the title. It winds up feeling like these pretentious, arrogant assholes have enough cash powering them that they can somehow live with themselves after they go and piss on a true artist's masterwork. The movie industry can be quite shameless and "The Avenging Fist" is a good example of such. All flash, no substance. I was being nice with my rating, but to be fair the special effects (here and there, not all) are quite good and pretty unique, and some of the cinematography together with a few okay cast efforts pull it away from being absolutely worthless. Don't get it twisted, though, this movie is definitely ass. It was loosely based on "Tekken" and had Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Ekin Cheng--this shit should have been legendary but instead we got something that isn't even worth the first viewing. Don't bother, you'll kind of regret it. Oh, yeah, thinking of that movie reminds me, do me a favor: if you see someone with a mullet, punch them. Just for sucking. It's like doing a public service. If you have a mullet, cut that shit, you're embarrassing the rest of us who walk upright. I'll catch ya'.

I had calibrated my expectations low enough for a movie "inspired" by a video game but, man, what a crapfest. I really wanted to like it, if only for Sammo and Yuen Biao, but I couldn't do it. The special effects were neither special nor effective. For example: in one scene a kid holds up his fist with thumb at his ear and his pinky extended to his mouth to answer the phone. 'Cause, you know, in the future your cell phone with be an Avenging Fist Phone with optional pinky boom-mic attachment. That’s not futuristic; that’s extremely lazy filmmaking. There were other effects that tried to simulate Amime and Video game fighting. These failed.

But what about the story, you ask? Don’t ask. If there was one, it sucked. Acting? Yep, there some acting happening. Martial Arts? Um, see “special effects” above. The one thing promised that was delivered is that most of the cast (Sammo and Yuen excluded) are both young and hip. Yep, very hip. And pretty too; all the boys and girls are pretty. If you want hip and pretty, I suggest downloading JPop videos from the web instead.

One final thought: You might be thinking that any film with “Avenging Fist Finger Phones” must fall into the category of so-bad-it's-good. Feel free to apply generous doses of alcohol and see if you can find some enjoyment in this mess. Personally, the director seemed to just suck all the joy out of the film (maybe in an attempt to make a kung-fu "Blade Runner"?) that I couldn’t enjoy it on any level.

Mom and dad are brilliant, capable fighting machines for the goverment. A new and improved weapon, the Power Glove, was designed to supersize the abilities of the person using it. But as such things usually turn out to be it was not only used for good. One of the agents steals the Power Glove with help from a dazed and sedated looking Biao. Through flashbacks we learn that dad was working on an invincible type of martial art called the "Avenging Fist" when things started to go wrong. While mom is about to deliver *enhanced* twins dad is being brain - washed by the evil leader and Samo must use the Power Glove to stop a still dazed looking Biao, and everyone presumes he dies from his injuries. But no, he lives on as a virtual slave. One day Darth, I mean dad is sent to bring back one of his own children to the evil leader. It so happens it is the kid's birthday. Mom decides it's time to give Nova the Power Glove his father wanted him to have. Just in the nick of time because dad is breaking down the walls and engages mom in a fight as she tries to protect her kids. Of course she loses quickly and evokes a memory in dad of early times. We know that he is tortured because he makes a tortured soul yell under the cheap mask over his nose and mouth. Mom is fading and in her last few breaths she tells Nova to save his sister, whom has just been kidnapped by dad. However there are still bad guys remaining so he practices on them and then falls apart because he killed someone. This is to show us he has emotions plus it gives a couple of lines to his girlfriend. Meanwhile Ironsurfer is fighting dad, and unlike every other person who dared battle with Darth dad he isn't dead yet. Dad knocks down Ironsurfer about twenty times. This is to show us the kid is not a quiter and he will not give up a battle. Right before he is incinerated or tossed through a wall Samo shows up to save him and to blast his opponent. Oops too late. Dad has carried off daughter. Darn! This means the movie is not over yet!

The ambience has been said to be "dark", like Blade Runner. Unfortunately it is nothing like Blade Runner. The darkness doesn't tell us anything - except it is dark. We know it is in the future because Samo wears a hat covered with aluminum foil (really!)The CGI looks as though it was done on an Atari computer. The bad guys were Nazi looking clothing right down to the boots. I suppose they were going for a good vs. evil tone but it didn't work. The film just dissolves into a mess all the time playing loud and annoying muusic. People flying around sans flight vehicles, ridiculous dialogue and atrocious acting with nary a plot - don't get this one or you will most definitely regret it!

Ekin's cameo made me laugh the hardest. couldn't believe he would be the "young" Sammo. Gigi's performance was alright (I guess), nothing special really. I didnt really like her relationship she had with leehom. It just didnt tie in with the film. Sure it seemed like a big thing at the beginning, thinking the relationship would go deeper, but nothing actually happened. You would've thought she was kidnapped or something, and that would give more meaning to the final power leehom used near the end of the movie, The thing for "love". Yeah...tthat. I really liked Kristy and Stephen's relationship however. At least Stephen had to fight to save her. leehom didn't do anything when it came to Gigi, but that wasn't the point of the film was it? It was finding the truth about his roots, learning about what really happened about his father (overrated).

This movie wasn't a disappointment really, just needed more work to be done on it. still, it's worth watching.

But let's move past that and discuss what this movie actually does and does not deliver. First the dissapointments. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao don't even fight each other, and Yuen Biao is pretty much cardboard as a villian with a goofy mask over his face the whole time. Second, the martial arts fights in this movie are completely jacked up by goofy effects and CGI. There is not one good kick ass hand to hand fight in this movie, which, I might add, is called The Avenging Fist. For the most part, the plot clods along with most actors putting in so-so or bad performances. The best performances in this film definitely belong to Sammo Hung, Aunt Wing, and surprisingly, Stephen Fung. As far as plot and action goes, this is no better than the Street Fighter movie crossed with a live action Dragonball Z.

But there are some good stuff. As mentioned before, Sammo Hung does a good job, and Stephen Fung is OK. Also,while the martial arts is bogged down by CGI, the action is not bad. The futuristic city that this film takes place in is cool looking. Also, the love story between Fung and Nova's sister is half believable.

When you boil it down you have to consider this...do you like popcorn movies such as Star Wars or are you a fan of Anime? Are you a teen girl who loves Stephen Fung? Watch it.

This movie, basically, is a couple hours of ok action and eye candy. Not much more. I thought it was in the middle, not crappy but not great. I would give it a shot if I was into popcorny flicks or action. Not too bad.

1. Mullets, headbands and denim jackets will be back in style.
2. White guys will still be getting their asses kicked by Asian martial artists.
3. Kristy Yang will still be the hottest female on the planet.
4. Hover scooters will indeed be a preferred mode of transportation, just as predicted in Back to the Future 2.
5. Huge video billboards will adorn massive skyscrapers, just as predicted in Blade Runner and Fifth Element.
6. There will be no sure-thing diet, as evidenced by Sammo Hung's waistline.
7. Nintendo's Power Glove accessory will become the most powerful weapon on the planet.
8. Traditional names like Jeff, Ryan and Alex will give way to bizarro monikers like Jazz, Meganova, Iron-surfer, Dark, Thunder and Combat 21.
9. People will say things like, "your father's spermatozoon."
10. Bad guys will dress in black leather trench coats and look suspiciously like Nazis (obviously forgetting that the Germans ultimately got their asses handed to them).
11. Hong Kong filmmakers have completely run out of original ideas.
12. Video game adaptations still suck.

Nova is trying to figure out what had happened 20 years ago about his father's death. His mother is keeping the truth from him because who knows why? At the same time, Combat 21 (yeah, what a name!) is plotting his evil deeds and Nova along with his friends get involved - as with any videogame-ish plot would.

Speaking of videogames, nothing in this movie was based on Tekken. Although the main characters do resemble Jin and Hworang from Tekken 3, the plot doesn't. And I guess after being sued by Namco, they might as well throw in some other videogame fighters such as M. Bison and Vega. All characters having their own original names of course and blend them in, in their own future-ish world looking a lot like The Fifth Element with hovering cars and such - which reminds me of the cheesy and annoying "whoo hoos" of Lee Hom Wang in the opening scene with the hovering scooters. Nice scenery though.

It's not even 10 minutes into film and I'm getting annoyed by Lee Hom. His typical teenage "I do stuff cuz I wanna" attitude is seen a dozen time. He felt more like a side kick character of a cool and calm. So the first fight comes up with Stephen Fung and the excitement begins. After Kiss of the Dragon, I wonder can Yuen Kwai top it? Fight begins and its....well....lets just say there are scenes where the background blurs with colors as a fighter bust his moves which really resembles a fucking Pokemon battle. And then we have them swinging their weapons in hyper speed where you can see a flurry of the hands holding the weapons on the screen which resembles a fucking Dragon Ball Z battle. Then I realize maybe Yuen Kwai didn't have total control. Maybe this is what Andrew Lau considers a stylish fight scene.

My mind was thinking "fuck this movie..." but my eyes were still waiting for Sammo and Yuen Biao. It happened but did it get any better? Eh. The fights involving Yuen Biao is definitely worth watching. Watch for a pretty good hand-to-hand work with Lee Hom. He still got his kicks. Too bad I can't say the same for Sammo which relied heavily on special effects that looked a bit too "whoa! what the fuck?!". But above all this, there are some interesting looking moves to see and all those CGI eye candy stuff.

Movies like this just make me wish for more violence. Don't CGI shit, just place a ketchup packet on his forehead and then smash it with your palm. I'm always down for low budget goodness. If the action genre in HK is defined as CGI, CGI, and more CGI, then it would never top their 80's era which I considered as the "Golden Age" of HK action films.

Stephen Fung - Mostly uses that same "come on give me a break-cheesy" style fighting, present in all his moviesÉ. alright acting. Kind of liked his character.
Sammo ­ No real fighting skills demonstrated. Sappy acting, with too much heart, but I don't know if I really felt his empathy.
Ekin ­ Not in the movie long enough to rate performance. All I have to say though; he is in a flashback scene and can't believe whom he is portraying. Boy what a couple billion sushi burgers can do.
Yuen Biao ­ Decent fighting moves, you can kind of feel for his character to a certain level.
Gigi ­ Cute as always. Few surprising nice moves but nothing that great to brag about.
Roy Cheung - Sorry buddy, loved ya in the mission, but anyone who has to play a M. Bison type character can only give a laughable performance. Way to over the top, not good, but I won't blame it on the actor.
Wang Lee ­ Alright, overall fighting-acting role, but didn't like the cocky attitude.
The other chick (sister) ­ hot chick that liked to whine had a couple special moments?
The mother ­ I felt intimated whenever I saw her.
Nicholas Tse ­ Oh wait he wasn't in this movie

I guess after being sued they had to take out all the Tekken themes and character's names. It is a shame because this film kind of had that video game-comic book feel to it. I guess instead they thought... "Oh well we will make it more like street fighter".

Overall, this movie wasn't too bad, not fantastic by any means. I guess if anything shows how just having a lot of stars in a film doesn't mean jack, when you give those stars one-track, simple-minded roles to play. So I won't blame the actors themselves for the lack of talent. But I can't completely dis this movie because it was kind of funÉup until the ending. O.K., I can tolerate some crazy monster reeking havoc, I can tolerate Yuen playing a bad guy, I can even tolerate the main character's hair do. But once our heroes, and enemies start getting these miraculous powers, to fly around the screen like a bouncy ball in a small enclosed room. It just becomes too unbelievable and doesn't work for me at all. Stick to the formula of fighting with special effects, not special effect fighting.

Going in I had expectations of Zu. Going out, a little better than expected but not as good as I would of hoped.

A boy dreams of knowing what his dead father was like. His dad is not dead, however, and has been taken over by a dark force of which he has mastered. A god-like emperor controls the masked dad and eventually attempts to pit him against his son or persuade him to join the team, using the sister as bait.

I liked this movie twenty-some years ago when it was called STAR WARS!!!!

Its seems that the makers of this film also wanted to send a statement to the special effects-loving world that they are officially in the game. The SFX are pretty good, but they by no means exceed what has already been done. Note to filmmakers: Being innovative does not mean ripping off the visual style of The Fifth Element, who in turned ripped off Blade Runner.

Avenging Fist doesn't feature much real kung fu, mostly computer-generated movement and inexplicably edited sequences look like they were going for a more comic book feel. The main problem with these effects-driven battles is that the audience is not treated to any boundaries. The characters seem to make it up as they go along, unmindful of going too far or of what cannot be done.

The real treat here is getting to see Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung in the same movie again. In my opinion, these guys are royalty and I curse the day they retire. Yuen, unfortunately, is looking old and actually a little pudgy. Sammo apparently hasn't changed his diet either. But even so, they are the best things on the screen and their understated and convincing performances earn the film every point that I give it.

The final confrontation serves as sort of a changing of the guard in Asian action cinema and I wish the two guys that apparently accept the torch would quietly give it back. I guess I have to give them time, but I don't have too much confidence in Stephen Fung and the other guy's succession of the Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen throne.

I wish I had more to say about Avenging Fist, but it's full of so many recycled ideas that I am not sure I could say anything new about it.