FATAL MOVE is the latest Hong Kong action/triad movie (though with more triad than action) focussing on the relationships between gangsters, and one particular cells dealings with the law and other rival gangs. Veteran action star Sammo Hung comes off an acting career highlight with SPL to play the Big Brother alongside Simon Yams deeply flawed Lin Ho Tung and young contender Lok Tin Hung (Wu Jing).
Yes, all three were involved in SPL, and this movie was originally conceived as a prequel to that film. When this became unfeasible, a whole new story was written, but hoping for similar success. Well, theres one thing that will be making the US distributors rub their hands with glee this movie already has its dumb two-word US title. No high-falutin philosophical gobbledegook about heavenly bodies interacting with each other requiring a tricky 30 second explanation that would make your average action film fan reach for the eject button and his Van Damme collection. Thats unless they decide to call it Kill Zone 2, that is.
The early word on this film was that it was mediocre. Well, let me say categorically that it isnt Fatal Move is, in fact, bloody awful. The central core, acting-wise, isnt too bad. Simon Yam plays a gangster prone to sentimentality and has a pretty sizeable gambling problem, Sammo Hung is getting good at his new lease of life as a Triad boss, and Wu Jing still flips about like a young Yuen Biao with a Manga hairstyle.
The troubles quickly become apparent when Wu Jing starts hacking away at his foes with a sword. It promises to be another great Wu Jing action showcase, but for some reason these huge gouts of CGI blood start pumping out all over the screen. Its true what they say: if you can tell its a CGI shot, then its not a good CGI shot - and frankly, these are terrible CGI shots. Worse, it continues this style all of the way through the movie. Its strange, Hong Kong mastered the blood squib back in the late 60s (see Chang Chehs HAVE SWORD WILL TRAVEL for how cinematic sword wounds should look) but these pathetic efforts wouldnt fool a seven-year-old child. Undaunted, I continued, only to find the plot convoluted, contrived and, worst of all, extremely dull. Id lost all interest by the hour mark (barely halfway through the movie, I might add) and the film just gets increasingly irritating after that. Its all about double-crossings, betrayal etc, but not done with an ounce of flair, and the plot lapses into incoherence on a number of occasions.
Its a mark of desperation when, near the end, two characters duel seemingly just for the sake of it. Certainly there was no brooding antagonism or sign of unrest among the couple that I could see (although I was nodding off at this point) one just says to the other that he didnt see the other as the leader and theyre off. Its like a tacked-on scene that movie executives add on when a production runs into trouble. It is, however, a great addition (CGI blood aside), and if more of these fight scenes were included it might have made the film half entertaining.
Dont rush into FATAL MOVE expecting the new SPL. In fact, dont rush into it at all. Dont walk, either. Give it a wide birth and pretend it never happened. Youll only be disappointed if you dont.
Reviewer Score: 3
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