Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham
Category: Action
If you've been reading this blog ever, you'd notice that I don't normally write about action movies. It's not that I don't watch action movies, I just don't have anything to say about them most of the time. Mostly it's because if I do, it'll sound about the same. Great action. Fantastic ride. Don't think about it too much.
This time it's different.After watching War, I thought, 'Argh, I've got to write something.' This time it's different. I have something to say. Unfortunately, it's not nice.
War is mostly a movie about two opposite sides of the law. One is a cop, with revenge on his mind. Another is a killer with, well, killing on his mind. The cop is looking for revenge for the death of his partner and his family in the hands of the killer. The killer has motives that are his own and the movies tried to make it not so obvious. The bad news is, it is very obvious. I don't know why but I had the twist in the end figured out right about a quarter through the movie. I am not saying that the movie is that transparent but you get a sense of it, where it's going, what's going to happend and you realise that you don't want to go there.
Which is a waste really. With two of the top action heroes from East and West on call, you'd expect better action sequence. The least that the director could have done was make up two unique filming styles for the action sequences for Jason and Jet Li. You know, Jet Li gets all graceful and slow mo while with Jason it's so close and raw, you can feel each jerk and thud.
What you get is a sense that the director was aiming to recreate a 70s action movie feel. With modern sensibilities. Bell-bottoms were the rage back then but now bell-bottoms are fashionable only for the fashion conscious (when bell bottoms were 'coming back'). And the twist in the end required a bit more dramatic acting than Jason could muster. Or was it the script because he suddenly sounded small and whiny.
War is a mess and so is this movie
