Based on the dismal local box-office returns and general bad buzz, I didn't have high hopes for Silver Hawk, especially after The Touch, which was disappointing to say the least. Thankfully, even though Silver Hawk isn't anything great, it is a fairly nice way to kill off ninety minutes. The trouble is that I (and many other Michelle Yeoh fans) expect more from her than a dopey superhero action flick.

Silver Hawk takes place in the futuristic Polaris City. Michelle plays an heiress named Lulu Wong who spends her spare time catching crooks as her alter-ego Silver Hawk. The cops are sick of being made fools of, so they enlist a tough new superintendent (Richie Ren) to catch the Hawk. While the cat-and-mouse game is going on, an evil scientist (Luke Goss) is trying to take over Polaris City by using a mind-control chip implanted in cell phones, so of course Michelle and Richie end up joining forces to stop him.

This film's main problem is that it never seems to find its' own identity. Almost every idea in the movie seems to have been taken from a previous entry, from Silver Hawk's use of a motorcycle (Supercop) to a big black henchman with metallic arms (Mortal Kombat). There are some fairly original bits, like a fight conducted on bungee cords, but overall, the film-makers really don't do anything fresh with the material.

Despite my better judgement, and general adversion to Jingle Ma's work, I did have a pretty good time with Silver Hawk. There's a nice amount of action and Michelle looks great as always. But it did leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. With all the time and money Michelle Yeoh (who produced this film) had at her disposal, one would think the results should have been better than this. If Hong Kong movies want to start competing with Hollywood films, they had better emulate the pictures of the past, instead of trying to parrot Hollywood's flavor of the week.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]