Essentially this film continues to play off of the popularity of the international pop star duo, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung, also known as the Twins. In this sequel purely by name, Choi and Chung co-star in a pretty ridiculous film. The story takes place in a world where guys are treated like slaves. When the evil empress was young, her lover laid with her younger sister. It sent her in an uproar of hate, so naturally she killed her father and took the throne. Now years later, an unlikely hero played by Jackie Chan's son, Jaycee Fong, must fulfill an "ancient" prophecy to obtain Excalibur and kill the evil empress and restore equality between men and women.

There are several factors that make this movie a bad one. First, the story itself isn't too original and tends to be pretty boring. The developments in the plot tend to take a long time to unravel. It sets the wrong mood for the movie, which is slow, because high-paced fight scenes get thrown in and it gets somewhat confusing, as the pace of the movie jumps between slow and fast. Another difficulty I had was with the relationships that developed between the characters. There were a lot of quick-loving relationships formed, some of which came too conveniently and others were plain odd. There were also several supporting characters included in the movie, who had way too much time in front of the camera. They tended to add absolutely nothing to the overall story. Even some of the main characters did not fill their roles too well.

In addition, the movie was supposed to be a little silly and it was. There were several touches of comedy that were created from characters acting or doing stupid things. For the most part, they tended to be annoying. However, there were a few characters who managed to pull it off and left me laughing quite hard. Of course, it didn't happen enough.

Overall, this movie was a big disappointment. I really enjoyed the first movie, but this sequel only by name was really awful. The characters were pretty annoying, the storyline was very weak, and the acting, it could have used some work. On a positive note, there were some pretty entertaining fight scenes. There was one especially good one with Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen.

Final Thoughts:
This was a pretty bad movie. It has very little to offer in entertainment. Sure there are a few good fight scenes and a joke or two that are funny, but considering the rest of the content (awful storyline, some bad acting, etc.) this movie has very little to offer. Fans of Choi and Chung should line up, but everyone else, skip it.

Review: How do you take some of the genre's top talent including director and action choreographer Corey Yuen Kwai, Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, and rising action starlet Gillian Chung and turn out a complete waste of a movie? Try making The Twins Effect II (AKA The Huadu Chronicles). Saying this film falls flat on its face is too kind. It's an embarrassing piece of filmmaking and a perfect example of what's wrong with the state of Hong Kong cinema in the first decade of the New Millennium.

The Twins Effect II started out as a sequel to Emperor Classic Films' (formerly EMG) modestly entertaining vampire-slaying adventure Twins Effect (2003) starring the Twins, pop stars Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi. However, as the makers saw Mainland China as their main market they bowed to Communist censors who took a dim view of content that "perpetuates" the occult or folklore, in this case vampires. So with their central theme gone, the makers simply created an unrelated fantasy world for the Twins to continue their tailored brand of teen-friendly humor, romance and wire-assisted action.

Not even five scriptwriters were enough to salvage this project. It's basically a martial arts and fantasy version of Flash Gordon meets Star Trek: Insurrection. Where Mike Hodges' serial remake at least had camp value, number nine in the dying Star Trek franchise has no redeeming value. Imagine the worst elements of these two films brought together with a ton of overblown CGI nonsense and you have The Twins Effect II.

The premise is B-movie material all the way. A fictional kingdom ruled by women subjects men to slavery. The man-hating Queen (Qu Ying) and her former lover (Daniel Wu), who made a Eunuch out of himself after being caught getting cozy with the Queen's sister, are desperately searching to destroy a man prophesized to be the next Emperor. That man turns out to be a simple, peace-loving street performer named Charcoal Head, played like a block of wood in his first film role by Jackie Chan's son Jaycee. But for the time being, it's uncertain whether he or his friend Blockhead (Wlison Chen) is the true Emperor and with a "dumbbell" slave trader (Charlene Choi) and the queen's enforcer (Gillian Chung) who unconvincingly falls in love with Charcoal Head, they go on a quest to see who may claim Excalibur... yes, the sword from the Arthur legend. Along the way they encounter Morlock-like creatures who tunnel underground, devour aggressive people and party with fun-loving people. Bear with me here. Guarding the sword is Jackie Chan as a Terracotta-like warrior who comes alive to challenge Donnie Yen who plays a general with the idiotic name Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. He's in charge of an underground resistance group intent on overthrowing the Queen's tyrannical rule and making the sexes equal. The two battle until they realize they're both on the same side and Charcoal Head steps up to reluctantly claim the sword. Donnie leads an army against the Queen's forces, but they all decide to team up and the audience gets shorted a battle sequence. In response, the Queen unleashes her magic to turn all men into men with breasts... okay, enough of this.

The Twins Effect II is crap. As a full-time reviewer I usually try to come up with some witty description, but none suffice in this case. The film is laughable and/or dull from start to finish. The sets, especially in the town are horrendous and make Shaw Brothers' '70s-era sets look like the Taj Mahal in comparison. The costumes are worthy of a Dr. Who episode. Overall, the art design is the equivalent of using Pink Flamingos and porcelain gnomes to decorate a weed-infested lawn. Nearly everything is an eyesore that bears no consistency from one scene to the next.

The script is a jumbled mess with bad dialogue and bad acting to deliver it. The Twins are as attractive as ever, but that's all they have going for them. Their romantic hijinks with Wilson and Jaycee that takes up too much of the running time is their usual pop garbage targeted at 10 to 14 year-old girls. Gillian shows some signs of being a competent action star, but it will take a serious action role for her to make all of her physical training worthwhile. Jaycee Chan seriously needs more acting lessons. The rest of the young cast are just poor actors period. Wilson Chen, Edison Chen and Daniel Wu are all overrated and actually deserve to be in this film. Donnie Yen, who is capable of so much more, is reduced to playing a throwaway supporting character. In the most embarrassing scene in his career to date, he takes a whiff of a love potion and gives Tony Leung a look that will make your skin crawl.

Corey Yuen is capable of crafting some of the best action choreography on the planet, but it all goes horribly wrong in this film. Excessive use of slow motion, wires and heavy CGI drown out any life or excitement to the action. The CGI is also sub-par to Hollywood standards and looks more like a direct-to-video effort. One scene rips off what I thought was one of the worst camera usages in Azumi where it spins around two fighters dueling on a platform. It's not even done as well. The featured battle is between Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen and it's a big disappointment. It's only their second face-off after Shanghai Knights and ends up anything but the ultimate battle of screen fighting masters that it should have been. What we get is the two spinning on wires in slow motion while CGI swords fly around in the air. And making matters worse, there is no connect with the characters, story or anything else. We really have no idea who the characters are or why they're fighting. This fight alone is a perfect example of how not to shoot a screen fighting scene. Considering who all was involved in making it, it's a shameful disgrace.

The Twins Effect II goes far beyond the mediocre product that Hong Kong has been producing (with few exceptions) to be an exceptionally bad movie. My hat is off to the makers for unapologetically showing just how bad it can get. I just hope it never happens again.

The results here aren't as bad as the duo's previous teaming in Protoge de la Rose Noire, but honestly, that's not saying too much. A lot of people have been saying Hong Kong cinema is dead in the water. I will grant that the output as a whole is nowhere near as good as it was during the "golden age" of the late 1980's-early 1990's, but there have still been some solid movies coming out of Hong Kong recently, like the excellent One Nite in Mongkok, a film which came out with little fanfare that has managed to impress most everyone who has seen it. However, The Twins Effect II is yet another example of what's wrong with the "big-budget" (relatively speaking) productions coming out of Hong Kong nowadays -- it just seems like the film-makers are throwing everything at the proverbial wall to see if anything sticks. Nothing really sticks here; it just kind of stinks.

There's a lot of stars, a veteran director, and a big dose of special effects, but none of these elements really seem to gel together to create a good movie. I'm sure I'm probably not the target audience for this film (since I'm a male over the age of thirteen), but even "bubblegum" or "popcorn" films can be highly entertaining if they're done right -- The Twins Effect II isn't. The script is meandering, the characters are under-developed, there's too much computer trickery in the action sequences, and (worst of all) the picture is just downright boring in parts.

I'm sure some of you might still want to check out The Twins Effect II since it's the on-screen debut of Jackie Chan's son, Jaycee. Well, based on his performance here, don't hold your breath waiting for him to take his dad's place in the Hong Kong movie food chain. He doesn't have the charisma or the moves of Papa Chan, and his acting is average to say the least. I'm not saying that he won't become a good actor one day (hell, I've even grown to somewhat like guys like Ekin Cheng and Edison Chen, actors which used to make bile rise in my throat) but as for now, the mantle of the "next big star" in Hong Kong cinema is still up for grabs.

Speaking of Jackie, there is a decent fight scene between him and Donnie Yen (who plays a character named "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" -- with five writers on the movie, you would think they could come up with a better moniker than that) but it uses too much CGI and doesn't create any real excitement. There's a lot of bells and whistles, but there's nothing genuine under the layers of special effects and fancy camerawork. It's a good metaphor for The Twins Effect II as a whole.

This is a nice-looking movie that has some good moments in it, but there's nothing here that really compels the viewer and actually pulls them into the film to make them truly care about the characters and what happens to them. Again, I know that The Twins Effect II isn't supposed to be a deep drama or hard-hitting action movie, but I have to think that even major fans of the Twins (or the other pop stars like Wilson Chen who were stuffed into the picture for marketing's sake) are starting to expect more from them than middle-of-the-road pablum like this.