Not to be confused with Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice (not that you would), Wu Ying Xiong is back in his brown leather jacket blowing up stuff again. In one quick scene, even the cinema that I was watching this very movie, Vieshow Cinemas Hsing Yi, was blown up. That was quite the pleasant surprise.
I was in Taiwan for the past week and just managed to catch this sequel to the original Black & White on its release day - which was just 2 afternoons ago.
Most of the original cast are back, though I was surprised and disappointed that Angelababy was not one of them, nor was Alex To.
However, this time, in addition to an international production team that involved a French visual effects studio (Buf), a Japanese production designer (Yoshi Akasuka) and a couple of Hollywood second-unit directors (Jack Gill and Ron Yuan); director Tsai Yueh Hsun has also enlisted a Singaporean actor (Christopher Lee, though I'm not entirely sure if another actress with a short cameo is Singaporean - she later disappeared after the first quarter) to boost the international status.
What I liked about the movie this time was that the pacing was more consistent. Unlike the first one where I expressed my dislike for the final act, this movie as a whole had a better coherent story where none of the explosion pieces, set pieces or action-sequence pieces felt forced.
And it was also quite an achievement on Tsai's part for keeping the octane way up there throughout the entire running time. There were only a couple of rare moments where you get to catch your breath.
What I didn't like, SPOILER ALERT (skip these 2 paragraphs if you don't want to be spoiled), was characters being introduced and never really got a proper conclusion - like the actress I mentioned above, or the lone survivor from the Black Ops, or the rookie female police that suddenly turned up dead in the end.
Also, while there were supposed to be so much at stake, killing off one of the minor characters that had a significant role would have given that much more urgency to the audience. There were a few key moments where this could have happened that would have immediately added some impact, like when the police station got blown up. Had Tsai decided to kill off Huang Bo's character, that would have definitely added some weight! His character didn't have much to do this time (which was also something I missed from the movie), and would have been an ideal candidate to write-off here.
Playing as the "unlikely partner" this time opposite Mark Chao's character was Lin Geng Xin. But let's face it, Lin is no Huang. I said in the first movie's review that Huang kept upstaging Chao in every scene, so while this time that didn't happen, the movie's acting standard dropped somewhat. In that aspect, though, Chao was able to be the "lead actor" in this sequel.
Playing the antagonist this time was director Tsai himself. But I felt that his acting was kind of flat. He should have gotten a more seasoned actor to provide a better antagonist for the film (though I do applaud his commitment to the craft by damaging his vocal chords for the part - was it necessary though?).
I must also add that, while Lin was there as the comic relief (taking over Huang), Tsai isn't that well-versed with creating humour onscreen. Many of the jokes were wrongly timed by the director or just not acted well enough by Lin. So that's one big flaw for the movie.
Still, the movie was quite the entertainment that it promised, which I didn't expect. It was slightly better than the first one, which I also didn't expect it to be. And to end this particular trilogy, I am hoping for the return of Angelababy (at the very least) because she was a big part of the success in the first one. I would like to find out what happened to her character.
And on a final note, apparently this trilogy is supposed to be the prequel to the TV series. Janine Chang's character is supposedly a big part of that series, that's why she was introduced here.
No comments:
Post a Comment